Built on Lies
by D. M. Evans
Summary: Connor, having survived the bad stuff in L.A. is doing a summer aboard in Rome. The last thing he expected to find was a stronghold of Slayers.
1. Lying to Himself

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1BUILT ON LIES

(_costruito su bugie_)

First story in the _Il Fuochi d'artifico (Fireworks) Series_

By D.M. Evans

Disclaimer - Joss owns all. I'm just doing some non-profit playing. The few characters you don't know, well those are mine.

Time Line – Post NFA

Feedback - yes thank you - FRT

Pairings - Telling you some would ruin the story's natural unfolding. There is Willow/Kennedy though. If knowing effects whether or not you want to read feel free to ask.

Summary - Connor, having survived the bad stuff in L.A. is doing a summer aboard in Rome. The last thing he expected to find was a stronghold of Slayers.

Author's Note # 1 This was written for Gileswench's Make it All Better Challenge at Fire and Ice Fic Group (see below)Any pairing, any rating, any season. Just make sure that if there's  
graphic sex involved, all persons participating are over the age of  
consent for California, which is eighteen. Pick one moment you felt  
Joss and Co. handled all wrong and fix it.

things you'll need to include: a CD somebody dislikes, eggs, a  
pleasant aroma in the air.

Author's Note #2 – This story was started before the challenge but I figure since it was JUST starting, it would be easy to fit it in (since it's multi-chaptered not all challenge requirements are in ch 1). I chose to rewrite parts of the finale. Okay, I would rewrite the entire Angel finale since I hated next to everything in it but I didn't. The one element I decided to rewrite was Connor actually obeying Angel and leaving. That's just so not Connor so that's what I'm going to Make All Better.

Author's Note #3 - Thanks to SJ, Maren and Kat for editing this. Thanks to Esmerelda, Leni and Flippy for their input and a special thanks to Marie for helping with all things Italian from the language at which I'm exceedingly rusty to points of interest in Rome (another thing I'm making all better since it was depicted very poorly on Angel) and lastly, this is a crossover with BtVS.

CHAPTER ONE

_ I The lights go out and I can't be saved  
Tides that I tried to swim against  
Have brought me down upon my knees  
Oh I beg, I beg and plead  
Singing Come out of the things unsaid _

**_ b Clocks – Coldplay /b /I_**

Maybe going to Rome had been a mistake. Connor had tried to put his past behind him, to value the new life Angel had given him. It had taken all his strength to walk out the doors of Wolfram and Hart after killing Sahjhan, to pretend he didn't remember anything. He saw the love in Angel's eyes and it hurt to turn his back on it.

He tried to remind himself even now that Angel had breeched his mind and removed his free will, taken away his memories, his life. He told himself that Angel had given him another lie to live. Only he wasn't really angry about it. Angel had tried to give him something good at a terrible cost to himself. Connor no longer felt hollow inside. He almost felt normal but now he knew why he was so different from his college friends.

He couldn't go back to the idyllic life he had before confronting Sahjhan. When he went back to school, he saw the dangers lurking on campus. It was hard to ignore that vampires and other demons stalked the school's quads, the nightclubs and frat houses, all the best places to go. Against his better judgment, he started fighting them while trying to hide it from his ersatz parents and his friends.

Connor remembered crying to Cordelia that all he wanted was to rest but he couldn't. Angel had given him a brief respite. He tried going back to his rest but it was like he had outgrown his skin. He tried not fighting but then he saw the demons on his turf. He couldn't just let innocents die because he wanted to give up. His rest no longer comforted. Connor felt better after a good fight. He slept better; ate better; screwed better after going toe to toe with demons. All his appetites seemed more sated after a battle.

His grades slipped but only just a little; then again he had nearly been in finals by the time he fought Sahjhan. His father, the one who was the lie, took it as a sign his idealistic son was losing interest in his major and was going to give up his plans to be a child psychologist and go into something with more teeth, as his father saw it, business. Dad was a CEO. Connor hated the idea of following in those footsteps. It had to be Wolfram and Hart's idea of a joke to implant the knowledge and the leanings in him to want to be a child psychologist. He was the pinnacle of a fucked-up teen. Childhoods didn't get more devastating than his. He didn't need to become of psychologist; he needed to visit one. God was laughing. Connor could almost hear him and it was never a good thing to get God's attention.

It hadn't been a hard decision to stand at Angel's side when the end was near. He had just been glad for that brief break from the end of his first year at school and his summer abroad. If he had already been in Rome when the Black Thorn attacked, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself, especially if Angel had died.

He had belonged with his father, facing an almost certain death. He didn't regret the decision to ignore Angel's command that he leave, to not join in the fight. Since when did he ever listen to anything Angel said? He had gone back to his father's side, throwing himself into the battle. If Angel was going to die to save the world, how could he not be there? And if Angel failed, would there have been a world left to live in? He still hurt in places from the horrible battle. He suffered cuts from more weapons that he cared to think about, a few more broken bones, which came as much as shock then as it had when the Beast broke him.

The emotional pain was worse. He watched Fred die, well Illyria at any rate. It was her sacrifice that saved the rest of them. The energies released with her destruction laid waste to several city blocks. In the end nothing but the cockroaches were left. Wolfram and Hart was gone, broken hopefully beyond repair. Wes was dead and Connor felt the guilt of that. If Angel hadn't tried to spare him his insanity, Vail wouldn't have entered the picture and Wes would be alive. He never even had a chance to talk to Wes about his role of putting him together with Holtz. Everyone else had blamed Wes for it but in some ways, Connor was thankful. He knew now God hadn't stepped in and put him with Holtz, no matter what he was raised to believe but he had loved Holtz – no matter what he had babbled at Angel in that mall - and he didn't blame Wes for his role in his life.

Gunn was the only non-roach to survive and Connor wasn't entirely sure Gunn was human any more, at least not entirely, not after what Wolfram and Hart had done to him. The rest were the roaches, the demons, himself, Angel, and Spike. Maybe it was sick to think of himself like that but he couldn't help it. Angel had not been happy to hear him murmuring that in the hospital when they were putting blood back into his ravished body.

Connor only had vague memories of the end of the battle. He remembered Illyria dying, shredding before him like a paper doll in a hailstorm. He had already been so injured at that point he was barely on his feet. The blue burst of light that signaled her end was embedded in his mind, seeing it when he shut his eyes. The buildings fell and he couldn't dodge all the debris, wounded as he was. Connor remembered lying on the pavement growing cold and heavy, knowing he was dying, his life leaving him in a warm sticky puddle of blood. Connor barely recalled Angel scooping him up and running with him to a car, tossing him in the backseat. He remembered being propped up next to Gunn, who Connor had thought was dead at the time. Spike had been trying to staunch the blood pouring out of the mortal man's wounds.

The next two days in the hospital were a blur as the doctor's pumped blood into him. His poor parents thought he had been caught up in the 'riot' around Wolfram and Hart and promptly blamed Angel. For his part, Angel never left him for long, sleeping when he could on the sofa in the room, equipped for visiting families. He had to work around daylight and the Reillys but Angel tried hard.

In the end, after Connor discharged himself against medical advice, before the doctors could notice how fast he was healing, he had a choice to make. Angel told him to go back with his human parents. Connor almost didn't. He saw the defeat in Angel's eyes. The vampire had lost nearly everything and he was willing to lose the last thing that meant something to him by sending Connor away. He told his father he couldn't chose yet, that he needed time.

It was the reason he decided to head to Rome for a summer semester abroad. He hoped distance would help him get perspective, to decide if he could remain a college student and forget the world of demons or if he should just give up the lie and go back to his real father. There weren't many who could fight the demons. Holtz had raised him to believe in doing good. Taking evil head on was a good thing but it was so hard, bone wearying. He just didn't know what he should do.

Rome was supposed to help him sort things out. At the moment, what he was sorting was a pack of vampires. The urge to fight was winning out over the impulse to remain normal. The battle was almost routine until a little blond vampire whacked him so hard he plowed through one grave in the_ I Cimitero Acattolico /I _and nearly took out John Keats headstone. Lying stunned on his back, Connor had an upside down view of the I _Piramide di Caio Cestio /I _, a pyramid built by some wacky Roman noble back in the B.C's or so the tourist info he had read earlier in the day had told him. He had been there to take photos of Keats and Percy Shelley's graves for his sister, the wanna-be poet. He figured it would be a good place to come looking for vampires. He hadn't been wrong.

He flipped up, his heel catching the blond vampiress' jaw. She stumbled back but recovered enough to plant a spin kick in his gut. She grabbed his throat, shoving him back but he twisted away. "Try not to destroy Keats' grave," he said, slamming a fist in her face.

When she staggered, Connor grabbed her, shoving her against a tree. She panted under his grasp, her body warm against his. He didn't relax his grip as he said, "You're not a vampire."

She gave him a stunned look. "Neither are you."

"You're a Slayer?" He let her go, jumping back out of easy striking range.

She rubbed her throat, her eyes narrowing. "You know about us?"

He nodded. "My father told me about your kind."

"How do you move like a vampire?" Her finger clenched the stake she had. She closed the distance between them.

"Tell you later," he said, shoving her aside with one hand, coming up with a stake in the other. It pierced a charging vampire's heart. "But I come by it naturally."

"Too bad the Slayers can't say the same." She laughed bitterly as she dispatched another vampire. "At least not originally."

A cry of pain cut through the cemetery. Connor scanned the white stones trying to home in on the cry while the Slayer was already on the move. He saw three vampires on another woman, beating her down. She had dark hair, or at least he thought she did in the moonlight. Faith? He helped the Slayer take out the remaining vampires. She held out a hand to the other woman.

"You okay?" The blond Slayer surveyed the younger girl.

" I _Si /I _," the other young lady mumbled.

"I think we got them all," Connor said, knocking vampire dust off his fraternity T-shirt. If the brothers of I _Tau Kappa Epsilon /I _could only see him now.

The blonde nodded. "Let's get out of here. You, come with us." She crooked a finger at Connor.

He followed her the short distance back to Aventine Hill. It was quickly becoming his favorite place in Rome. From the hill, he could see the Tiber River, the Circus Maximus and the Forum Romanum. It was a holy place to more goddesses than he cared to remember. Connor closed his eyes. He didn't want to think about goddesses. It would only stir up memories of Jasmine. "You both Slayers?" he asked, as they paused under a street lamp.

The dark haired Slayer, most definitely not Faith, looked at him in surprise then over at the blonde for guidance.

"We're Slayers. I'm Buffy," the blonde said then pointed at her companion. "This is Concetta."

"Connor."

"You said your father told you about us. Was he a Watcher?" Buffy asked persistently. He wished she'd let this go.

"Something like that," Connor said, deciding that to own up to being parented by vampires was not the thing to say to a pair of Slayers. He couldn't tell them he knew Faith either since she wouldn't remember him.

"But that doesn't explain how you move, how strong you are." Buffy's eyes held an ocean of suspicion in them.

"Born that way. I never thought much about how I can do it, just that I can," Connor said, echoing the lie that had been told to his ensorcelled parents. Again, the whole coming out of the demon closet seemed like a foolish thing to do given his current companions.

Buffy's eyes were still hard and questioning.

Concetta seemed confused. "Boy Slayer?"

"No such thing," Buffy said dismissively, waving off the idea. "And I'd like to know more about you. Giles will want to know. Too bad Willow's in South America."

Connor hoped his face didn't betray he knew that name or the shock that Buffy knew Willow as well. He was a little relieved the witch wasn't in Italy. He was grateful that Willow helped Angel but his opinion of magic hadn't changed much. He was very intrigued by Buffy now. She knew some of the people his father had and he wanted to know more about her and her friends and how they fit into Angel's life, only he didn't want to let on he knew Angel since that would just lead to questions he didn't want to answer until he came to a decision; could he live life as Angel's son? "I'll tell you what I can. Meet me for lunch tomorrow."

She seemed amused by the suggestion. "You're a little young to be taking me to lunch."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm in college."

"He's just a boy," Concetta said in disbelief.

"I have a student visa, honest." Connor shrugged. "Fine, don't meet with me. I'm sure we'll see each other on a hunt sooner or later."

"Patrol," Buffy corrected him. "We call it patrolling, not hunting."

"Same difference," he said and saw she didn't like that.

"I'll meet you," she said.

"Good."

Connor told her when and where then watched the two ladies go. He was as intrigued by them as he had been with Faith. It wasn't often he found someone who could match or beat him in a fight. There was something definitely arousing about it. He wished he had a way of checking out Buffy but he could hardly call Angel and ask about it. Angel had problems of his own and, if Angel had any idea he was in Italy fighting demons, the vampire would lose it. No, Connor was on his own but he was used to that. He was better off that way. He'd learn about Buffy without any help.

Author's Note - Tau Kappa Epsilon is a real fraternity. No disrespect is meant by using them here. I used to hang with the Tekes and many of my fondest college memories revolve around them.


	2. Contemplation

CHAPTER TWO

_We're running with the shadows of the night  
So baby take my hand, you'll be all right  
Surrender all your dreams to me tonight  
They'll come true in the end  
You said - oh girl, it's a cold world  
When you keep it all to yourself  
I said you can't hide on the inside  
All the pain you've ever felt  
Ransom my heart, but baby don't look back  
Cause we got nobody else_

**_Shadows of the Night - Pat Benatar_**__

Buffy stared at the Trevi fountain, feeling like the two tritons who stood within; one with a wild sea horse and the other with a calm one. She hadn't realized that my fountain symbolized the two aspects of the sea until Connor told her. To her, it symbolized her life, all wild danger broken up by bits of calm.

Like now, a calm so enduring she wanted to run naked in the fountain just to liven things up. Connor, Willow, and Giles were somewhere in the Vatican museum getting a special look at some books the Catholic church had locked away forever. Buffy had known Connor only two weeks but she knew in spite of how seriously he took his schooling, he wasn't really 'book guy.' She didn't know why he volunteered to go with Giles and Willow other than maybe to get away from Kennedy. They were like gas and flame, better off not mixing. From the look on Concetta's face as she lounged in the shade listening to Kennedy retelling a tale of glory from Rio for the hundredth time, she was on Connor's side. Alcina, a fifteen-year-old Greek Slayer, seemed half asleep in the warm Mediterranean spring sunlight.

Some days, Buffy was on Connor's side, too. As hard as she tried, Buffy couldn't bury the memories of the mutiny little Miss Brat had led against her. It hadn't been forgiven or forgotten. It simply wasn't spoken about. Nor was her own culpability in that mutiny. If she hadn't been acting like Captain Bligh, giving the Potentials the 'everyone sucks but me speech,' it might not have happened, or at least her sister and her best friends wouldn't have allowed it to get as far as it had.

Still, the one thing she and Faith saw eye to eye on was that little power ploy of Kennedy made her worthy of close scrutiny, especially since she didn't think she had anything to learn from Buffy. The elder Slayers knew it was only a matter of time before Kennedy arrogance got her in trouble. Kennedy was a self-admitted brat and Buffy had tried hard to work with her to tone it down, to show her that things tougher than her existed out there but in the end Buffy gave up and sent her and Willow to South America to find more new Slayers. Buffy just hoped Willow was prepared for the day when Kennedy's attitude cost her big time and hoped Willow wouldn't be the one to pay the price

Buffy felt traitorous to Willow, feeling as she did about Kennedy but she said nothing to her friend about it. If Willow could endure the trials and traumas of her being with Angel and Spike and even Riley, if they both could deal with Anya being with Xander and even coming to like the ex-demon, then she could deal with Kennedy. The girl was young. Maybe she'd mature. Maybe she'd move on as teenagers often did. Buffy knew that it was very selfish of her but she couldn't help it. The best she could do was hide how she felt from Willow. She wished she hadn't ever spoken of it to Faith, fearing the more hot-headed Slayer might say something but Faith had changed, become more mature. They all had, really. Besides, Faith was half a world away in Cleveland and Kennedy was out of her hair.

Of course, if Andrew kept chattering at Kennedy, Alcina, and Concetta like he was at the moment, she might not have to worry about it. He and Kennedy were likely to thrown down with each other. He was just as likely to land a lucky blow from a distance and kill Kennedy or himself. Either way it would be quieter and she knew that was equally selfish. Maybe having time to herself was a bad thing. It led to bad thoughts. Kennedy, Concetta, Alcina, and Andrew were with her for a purpose. They had gotten a call from a priest to check out suspicious deaths. They were just waiting for Giles and Willow to proceed. Connor was just a luxury but she was happy for it.

" I _Neanche se lei fosse l'unico uomo sulla terra I ," _Concetta snapped at Andrew who was leaning over her, obviously excited about something.

The Italian Slayer's tone dragged Buffy back to her companions when she wanted to remain lost in the world of marble and history.

"What's that even mean?" Andrew sulked, understanding the tone if not the words.

"I don't speak Italian and even I know that means 'not if you're the last man on earth'," Kennedy said and Buffy figured she was right. Terra definitely meant earth.

Buffy tried to ignore them but it was hard. She was as antsy as they were waiting on their overdue friends and seeing Andrew, Buffy really wanted to ask Giles what it was about Watchers' training that turned everyone into pompous windbags. Andrew was worse than Wesley had been in his Sunnydale days. Then again, Andrew never shut up from the first day he darkened her door. Xander kept insisting Andrew's ability to remember all that geek minutia would translate to him being a good Watcher since memory was key. She didn't dispute that and with as many Slayers they had now, they really did need all the Watchers they could get. She and Faith were functioning as both Watcher and Slayer most of the time.

"I just don't like seeing pretty women alone," Andrew said, gazing at Concetta.

"What makes you think 'Cet wants you?" Kennedy stabbed her tongue into the slushy treat she had gotten from a nearby vendor.

"We have too many lonely hearts," Andrew continued as if not hearing her. "Poor Dawn all alone in London or Faith back in the States."

Buffy noticed Andrew failed to mention he usually was in London with Dawn. She knew her sister had shot him down fast and hard when she moved there after finally admitting they just couldn't afford the schooling in Italy, not being citizens. It was ridiculously expensive. Buffy had no choice but to trust her sister's care to Giles. She knew it would be good for Dawn in the long run to get out of her shadow and to become her own person.

Buffy felt sorry for Faith. Robin had died of his wounds before they had even gotten their injured to L.A. She knew Faith had been devastated almost as much as Xander had been over Anya. She figured that was why he volunteered to go to Africa.

"Even our bright, beautiful Buffy is alone now that the dark shadow of Spike and Angel are gone," Andrew said with a theatrical sweep of his arm towards her.

Buffy rolled hers eyes. Andrew had no business talking about her love life but she knew there was no stopping him. He loved playing match maker, which was why she was glad he was usually in London with poor Giles. Her Watcher had been letting Ripper out to play once or twice and Andrew had squealed on him to her. She told him let Giles have his fun. If any man deserved it, it was Giles who had given up nearly a decade of his life babysitting her and her friends.

"Buffy's not alone," Alcina said, her nearly black eyes dancing with glee. "I think she likes our little boy."

Buffy smiled, ducking her head, feeling almost shy. 'Our little boy' was a name the Slayers she was training had hung on poor Connor. In two weeks he had become their mascot, more or less. He seemed embarrassed by it but that didn't keep him from fighting at their sides.

"Oh, she'd never have any interest in that rough little man," Andrew scoffed, waving a dismissive hand at Alcina.

"You could say that," Buffy said, "But you'd be wrong."

Andrew looked pole axed. "But why?"

Buffy thought about it. It wasn't that she put conscious thought into her attraction. Certainly Connor didn't have Angel's smoldering intensity, Spike's fluid sensuality or even Riley's innocent good looks. Connor was a little scrawny, kind of oddly put together with big hands and nose; he had hair like he wanted to be the Monkees' Davy Jones and the only sign that he was a boy was the large adam's apple pushing against the skin of his slender neck. He was androgynous.

Still, he combined a lot of traits of her past lovers. His moodiness and sexy sneer - how he managed to turn that negative into something sexual she didn't know - put her in mind of Angel. In a fight, he moved with such speed and cat-like liquidity that she saw Spike in her mind's eyes. His soft sad blue eyes reminded her of Riley. Maybe it wasn't healthy to be interested in someone solely based on his resemblance to past lovers or maybe she just had a type that she liked. That was common enough. Connor was different if by the sole fact she was actually interested in someone younger than her for a change.

"You must not like him very much," Andrew said when Buffy didn't answer fast enough. "He reminds me of Wormtongue."

"Actually he's more like Legolas," Buffy said, indulging in a moment of Orlando Bloom lust. She enjoyed the stricken look in Andrew's eyes. He never expected her to pull out a geek card, which she could from time to time. "I like Connor a lot. He's intense. He's one hell of a fighter and he's sweet when he wants to be."

Andrew snorted. "But you have no idea how Connor fights like he does. He could be a demon, you don't know. That's why you called in me and Mr. Giles." Off Buffy's cocked eyebrow, he added. "And Willow."

"Yeah lucky us. I miss Rio," Kennedy muttered.

Buffy wanted to remind the younger Slayer that was only half the reason she had been recalled to Rome. Willow and Kennedy were supposed to be picking up South American Slayers but every time they checked in they were playing around in Rio. Giles was going to reassign them even before Buffy called him about Connor. Kennedy was a bad influence on Willow. Buffy couldn't imagine Willow being that irresponsible on her own. She had really wanted Willow to stay with Giles, to make sure she wasn't relapsing on the magic addiction after the last huge spell in Sunnydale but that wasn't an option. The core group had spread to four of the seven continents in an attempt to find more Slayers. Xander was due to go to Australia in a month and Giles was thinking of sending Willow and Kennedy to Asia.

For her part, Willow seemed just as excited about Connor's differences as Giles was and she found Rome even more romantic than Rio. Buffy concurred. Buffy figured Kennedy was jealous of all the time Willow spent with Giles and Connor, not to mention her. She knew Kennedy mistrusted her closeness to Willow.

"I really doubt he has any interest in you, Buffy. The way he fights like a Slayer he's probably one of those women trapped in a man's body kinda person," Andrew said and all three Slayers executed a group eye roll. Buffy rather suspected that if anyone was a woman, it was Andrew.

"Boy, I'm glad they brought you here from London for your expert opinion." Kennedy trashed the paper container for her slushie. "Woman trapped in a man's body."

"Who's a woman trapped in a man's body?" Connor asked, pushing through the crowds. Willow and Giles were right behind him.

"According to Andrew, you." Kennedy smirked and Buffy wanted to kick her.

"Really?" Connor's lips peeled away from his strong, white teeth in a vicious sneer; the kind that screamed, 'Angelus.'

Buffy put a hand on Connor's arm. "What do you have there?" She nodded to the paper folded around golden balls that smelled delicious. She was hungry and if she could distract him from Andrew at the same time all the better.

" I _Suppli di riso_. /I Have some. They're fried rice balls stuffed with mozzarella," he said.

Buffy tried one and found them to be as good as they smelled. She ate a few more. "Thanks. I don't know how someone who eats so much can stay so slim."

"I have a good metabolism," Connor said, offering the rice balls to Concetta and Alcina, Buffy noticed. She didn't doubt he had shared them with Willow and Giles earlier but was denying the bounty to Kennedy and Andrew. Connor could be as cold as Norway when it came to people he didn't like.

"He's our shrew," Willow bubbled, resting a hand on his shoulder, oblivious to Kennedy's vitriolic look. Buffy wasn't.

"Buffy, when you called you said there was something we should look into," Giles interrupted as if sensing the tension.

"Which is why we're guessing you called out the Calvary." Willow linked arms with Kennedy, resting her head on her shoulder for a moment.

"Father Cardinelli, one of Father Gabrielle's under priests, called the complex. Someone killed one of his parishioners in the confessional last night and the priests think whoever it was escaped into the nearby I _Catacombe di Domitilla /i _," Buffy said.

"Vampire?" Willow almost sounded bored with the idea.

Buffy shook her head. "No marks on the body anywhere. Father Gabrielle said this was the fifth death in the area just like it. No one knows how they died. He thought maybe we ought to have a look since he thinks it could be supernatural. Since you're our research guys I figured you and Will would want in on this and Connor might come in handy if we have to go into the catacombs."

"Well, those catacombs run for miles," Connor said. "We should break into groups if we have to go down. Me, you, Alcina, and Giles and Willow, Kennedy, Concetta, and Andrew."

"Who put you in charge?" Andrew glared.

"Logic. I broke the team into two super strong warriors, one Watcher a piece and hey your team gets the added benefit of a mage, not to discount Giles' abilities with magic. My team gets the extra warrior," Connor argued. "But if you want Buffy, I'll take Concetta."

"No, the teams are fine as is," Buffy said hurriedly, knowing she had divided it up the same way. "If we're lucky, we won't have to go into the catacombs."

"It'll be fun, Buffy, just like Indiana Jones." Andrew smiled in anticipation, clapping his hands together.

"Yeah, maybe the rats will get you," Connor muttered.

Buffy stuffed a rice ball in his mouth before he could start a fight. She stole another for herself as they headed for the church. Giles and Willow listened intently as the priest lamented the loss of his parishioner. The Slayers as a whole were having trouble sitting still, even Concetta who had to translate from time to time when Father Cardinelli's English failed him. At least they got all five names of the victims so Willow could do her computer mojo and look at the autopsies to see if that shed any light on the potential killer. Father Cardinelli introduced them to Father Marachetti who had seen a dark shadowy thing slink out of the confessional and into the catacombs. Giles asked to speak to Father Gabrielle, the head priest, as well but the man wasn't available.

Buffy had no desire to go into the catacombs. Andrew, Giles, and Willow looked like they were about to go to Disney World. Father Cardinelli helped set them up with guides and into the grotesque depths they went. It felt like days while they poked around the gloomy volcanic underground. She listened to Giles talk about how the Romans would come down here and picnic with their deceased family. She was just as glad that custom died out because the idea of sitting down at her mother's grave with a bucket of chicken and Pepsi grossed her out. The _loculi_ where bodies had lain were even freakier. She found herself wishing for a vampire just to end the slasher movie tension.

Giles, Alcina and the guide went around one bend while she and Connor took another. He paused to look at mosaic. Buffy had to wonder why anyone would put the time and effort into laying thousands of colored shards into a pattern for any reason let alone miles underground in a crypt.

"Is that Jesus?" Buffy nodded at the mosaic.

Connor nodded. "And St. Peter and St. Paul. It's beautiful."

"I guess...creepy." She glanced down a gloomy tunnel, trying hard not to dwell on the strange smell. "I don't think we have a prayer of finding whatever it is down here."

"Agreed. Too many places to hide." Connor touched one of the glass pieces quickly as if he were making a huge transgression. "We don't even know what we're looking for."

"We should get Giles and round up the others," Buffy said.

Connor's eyes didn't leave the mosaic, obviously getting something out of it she didn't. "Why was Andrew calling me a woman in a man's body?"

"It's his theory of why you fight like a Slayer." Buffy grinned. "Mostly he's just jealous."

"Because Andrew thinks I want someone other than him?" Connor turned, smirking at her. "Or because he thinks you want someone other than him."

"I'm really not sure." Buffy felt her grin broadening. "Andrew doesn't think you have any interest in me."

Connor shrugged. "Because I haven't done this?"

He moved in and kissed her. Standing under a mosaic of Jesus surrounded by the dead, Buffy knew it should feel very wrong. It didn't. His mouth was hot. She was so not used to that any more. He tasted of rice and cheese and a cappuccino he must have had not long before he met her at the Trevi Fountain. Now that would have been a proper place to kiss her instead of a crypt. He took a step back. "I probably could have picked a more romantic setting," he said as if reading her mind.

"I'm a Slayer." Her face took on a rueful cast. "This is as romantic as it gets."

He smiled one of his huge, "I need to be continued on the next man" smiles. "Well, in that case."

Buffy didn't wait for him to kiss her. She pulled him to her, feeling the strong muscles in his shoulders tightening as her tongue explored his mouth. How someone so thin could feel so powerful, she had no idea. She knew his strength. They had sparred. She nearly lost to him twice. He might be young but there was talent in his tongue and lips as he all but devoured her.

"I'm afraid that this is a hopeless endeavor. Until we know what we're looking for, we're wasting time," Giles said, coming around the corner with Alcina and the guide. Buffy jumped back, knowing she had to look guilty and red-faced. Giles just gave her his tight-lipped, 'I'm irritated' look and plucked his glasses off for a cleaning. Alcina just beamed, obviously feeling justified in her suspicions about the elder Slayer's interest in their 'little boy.'

"You know, Giles, one of these days you're going to polish straight through the glass," Buffy said, pushing past him. "Let's find Willow and get her started on finding the autopsies. Maybe we can narrow the field."

She looked back just briefly and saw Connor and Giles exchange glances. She was expecting a fatherly disapproval but Giles flashed one of his 'cheeky' smiles as he would most likely call it. Connor looked utterly unapologetic. Buffy wondered why she felt so guilty. Maybe because she had such a bad habit of making out when she was supposed to be patrolling. She had done it with Angel, Riley, Spike and now Connor. Maybe she should feel guilty since she had only known the young man for two weeks and could probably count on both hands the things she actually knew about him.

She tried to push him out of mind and concentrate on work. Somehow she knew it wouldn't be as easy as that.


	3. Tentative Steps

CHAPTER THREE

_ I I let go of all my lonely yesterdays  
I've forgiven myself for the mistakes I've made  
Now there's just one thing the only thing I wanna do  
I wanna love somebody, love somebody like you _

**_ b Keith Urban - Somebody Like You /b /I  
_**

"Etruscan influence on early Roman culture?" Buffy shuddered, looking over Connor's shoulder as he typed.

He glanced up at her, smiling. "Fascinating stuff."

"Keep it up and we're going to call you 'Giles Junior'." She patted his back.

"Ooo, I think Dad would not like me turning English. Sorry Giles," Connor said, shooting the Watcher an apologetic look. I _Neither Dad /I _, he added to himself.

Giles glanced up from his books. "It's understandable, Mr. Reilly." His lips twitched in a faint grin, hitting the word 'mister' hard.

"Reilly, I'm still working on that name." Buffy wagged her head.

"Oh?" Connor swiveled away from the computer to give her his full attention.

"Old boyfriend," Buffy said somewhat sheepishly.

"Ah, so you like them Irish." Connor knew he was being pushy, a little arrogant even, but he was that now. Maybe it was a side effect of Vail's spell or maybe it was natural for him. Either way, arrogance hid inside him. He didn't miss the daggers Andrew was glaring at him when he was supposed to be helping Giles. Connor couldn't honestly tell if the boy was interested in Buffy or not because he seemed to be rather infatuated with Xander and another guy named Spike. Connor was fairly certain it was the same Spike he knew even though Andrew had never said his Spike was a vampire. Connor preferred not to be engaged in conversation with Andrew and so had never asked.

Buffy's lips pursed as she thought about that. "You know, two of my last three boyfriends were Irish."

"That shows good taste," he assured her and Giles snorted. Even Willow looked up from her laptop at that declaration. "Input from the English, aside."

"That was more directed at my boyfriends being in good taste, including the last one who was English." Buffy's shoulders hunched up.

"Riley was a good man," Giles replied after a moment's thought. He twisted on the couch to look at Connor. "I'd love to read your thoughts on the Etruscans when you get the paper done, Connor."

"Thanks, Giles. A few more lines and I'm good to go. I'd appreciate a second set of eyes on the paper before I turned it in." Connor glanced at them all in turn. "And I appreciate you guys letting me come here to work. It beats me being stuck in the coffin all day."

Buffy put her hands on his shoulders. "Usually I'd protest using that description but I've been to your dorm room. Prisoners get more space."

classSection2> 

"Which is why I'm glad you've been letting me crash here." Connor meant it. He had taken Buffy up on her offer last week to stay over in a guestroom after a patrol that had lasted until nearly dawn. He hadn't even been thinking sex at the time, well not much at any rate. He was, after all, staying in an old home that housed three women, Buffy, Concetta and Alcina; five now, counting Willow and Kennedy in one of the guest rooms. It was hard to not think of sex when there was that much femininity.

It might have been more appropriate to stay in the guest house that shared the courtyard with Buffy's home. Giles and Andrew lived there and it had another spare room. He didn't know where Buffy and her friends got their money but they were obviously using a lot of funds to afford the main house and its guest home. Connor didn't feel comfortable in the guest house, even though he knew Giles liked the company. The older man had a kick ass record collection that Connor coveted, however. Andrew was online most of the time either chatting with Xander or playing Everquest or some such nonsense that Connor had never gotten into. He needed the computer for his school work and didn't feel right about displacing Andrew from his so he stayed in the main house. Willow used her lap top and none of the other girls were that interested in the main computer, too busy with working out and patrolling.

He didn't mind staying with the girls, and they seemed to like having him around. Even Kennedy didn't seem put out by his presence so long as he stayed out of her way, which he did willingly. He liked the others. Willow was stunning but obviously not interested in what he had to offer. Concetta was smart and sultry, Alcina bright and perky. He was drawn, however, to Buffy. The world-weariness in her eyes sparked something in him. He felt a kinship with her that went beyond the brief amount of time he knew her. She was as strong, if not stronger, than him, which was alluring. She had a few years on him, not too many but enough to be enticing.

Thinking on women older than him reminded him briefly of Cordelia, Faith, and Fred and his relationships with those women. He never understood why anyone thought he should know Angel had meant for Cordy to be a mom to him. He never really got the whole Oedipal thing. Remembrances of Fred, however, made him blush. He thought about the time he ogled Illyria, not realizing who she was and felt a little queasy. If anyone had been a mom to him, it was Fred, or at least a big sister with the way she and Gunn tried to take care of him after Father had died. Faith, while he hadn't known her well and she had originally irritated him, had impressed him with being able to go toe to toe with him. In his naiveté he hadn't even understood how arousing that was to him. Cordelia, however, had no trouble seeing it. It was just as well Faith was back in America

classSection3> 

because the mere thoughts of how she made him feel were a dangerous distraction from the women at hand.

Concetta was his age and Alcina younger still. He rather liked them older. He was just romantic

enough - more of Vail's magic? - to long for a summer fling in Rome. Of course, Buffy hadn't said anything about last night's kiss in the catacombs but he thought it hadn't been a one-sided affair.

"You know, Riley was a psych major, too," Buffy said, running a hand through her hair. "Grad student."

"See, doubly good taste." No sense in suddenly being less brazen, he decided. Connor hit the save icon.

"Got something on the deaths," Willow sing-songed, looking up from her lap top.

"Pow wow time," Andrew declared.

"Let me print this out and I'll join you," Connor said, clicking the printer icon.

"You weren't invited," Andrew said. Connor's head snapped up, looking at the young man in disbelief. Andrew shot him a haughty look. "This is for Watchers and Slayers. You're neither."

"Andrew." Buffy's lips pulled into a grim line. "Connor can listen in to the meeting if he wants."

"That's not SOP," Andrew protested, looking to Giles for support.

"Connor has been patrolling with Buffy. He's part of the team now," Willow added. "And it's not like we didn't let you help back in Sunnydale."

Andrew wilted a little at that reminder.

"I think it would be a benefit to us to have Connor's insights. He obviously knows a little something about fighting demons." Giles held out his hand for the paper Connor took out of the printer hopper.

"Thanks. Believe me, I know about killing demons." Connor eyed Andrew. He knew the type. His roommate in his fraternity house was the same way, a wanna-be big dog who'd never be more than a yappy Yorkshire terrier. Connor had already put in a request to his fraternity president to be assigned to a new roommate next semester, provided, of course, he even returned to Stanford.

"You might know how to kill vam-pyres," Andrew said, hitting the second syllable hard, totally missing the eye rolls at his affectation. "But there's more to demons than that."

classSection4> 

Connor nodded. "I know. I'm conversant in about six different demon languages...and for some reason I know a few Irish lullabies translated into Pylean...whatever that's about." He didn't know for sure how he knew the translated lullabies. A bit of something from the time his Uncle Lorne - he still shuddered at that - changed his diapers? I _No, no thinking on that /I _, Connor berated himself, knowing that was the path to more sleepless nights. He could accept Lorne was a good demon. Connor still didn't want to think about the fact the creature had powdered his ass while singing him lullabies. "And I even know how to pronounce vampire correctly."

Andrew glared.

"Go on, Willow," Buffy said tightly, her fingers digging into his shoulders as warning to knock it off. He figured she was losing patience with both him and Andrew at this point. "What did you find out from the autopsy reports?"

"Nothing," Willow said and watched Buffy's face twist into a scowl. "But that's significant. There was no reason for any of them to die. The heart just seemed to stop with nothing accounting for it. No injuries, no drugs, no signs of any disease. All the victims were young and healthy. They're looking now for exotic poisons, even an infectious process."

"So where do we look first?" Alcina turned to Buffy for guidance. "That doesn't tell us much."

"No, certainly it doesn't give us much of a starting place," Giles said. "But there are demons that kill with a touch, Willow, Andrew, and I can start looking in that area."

"I can help with that, Giles," Connor offered. "I'm done with my school work."

"Again, it's not for civilians to be handling Watcher texts," Andrew said, a protective look in his eyes.

Connor grated his teeth, deciding he wasn't going to press the point. If Giles needed him, he'd supercede Andrew. "Buffy, what do you Slayers usually do while your Watchers do the research?"

"Sometimes we help. Other times we patrol and occasionally we try to pretend we have a real life." She smiled wanly.

"Well, since we have a surplus of Slayers and a couple of Watchers, how would you like to do the real life thing with me? I'd love to take you to the I _Villa Doria-Pamphili /I _." If Andrew didn't want him around, Connor could live with that, use it to his advantage even.

Buffy raised a pale eyebrow. "Like a date?"

"Complete with dinner." He grinned. "Then you and I can patrol or you can join Concetta, Alcina, and Kennedy or they can join us."

"Oh, I don't want to see you two on a date." Kennedy grimaced. "Willow can join me in the south of the city. Alcina and Concetta can pick a quadrant and you two can do the same."

"Works for me. Beep me if you need us or if you learn anything," Buffy said, looking happier than he'd ever seen her be.

Connor couldn't help the superior look he shot Andrew as he walked out with Buffy. She paused to get her digital camera and he picked up his motorcycle helmet plus the spare. They got on his Yamaha V Star classic motorcycle and he headed for the villa, one of the finest parks in all of Rome.

For a while, they didn't talk business. They simply ambled through the grounds, enjoying the greenness and little lakes. They were spoiled for choice as to which statues and fountains to look at. They had been in the villa three nights ago, chasing down some vampires, but it looked different by day, more beautiful and majestic. He took a picture of Buffy in front of the I _casino dell'allegrezze /I _, the house of mirth. Buffy seemed to be taking a particular joy at being out in the bright Italian sun. Given what she did for a living, mired in the darkness, he understood this might be precious to her.

"You don't mind me bringing along the camera, do you? I mean, it's not normal first date behavior," she said sheepishly, taking the camera back until someone offered to take their picture together in front of the beautiful building.

"I don't mind," Connor said as the passing stranger gave the camera back. "Besides, if you count last night, this is the second date...but only if you count the catacombs."

Buffy linked arms with him. "It smelled bad down there...doesn't count."

"I see. Only places that have a pleasant aroma count?" He slid his arm around her slender waist.

"That's a new rule." She paused to snap another fountain. "I should have brought another smart card. These are for Dawn. She really wanted to stay here in Rome but I couldn't afford it. Dawn could speak the language but with us being Americans…it was an expense we didn't need."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. My classes are supposed to be in English but not always. I know the language a little," Connor said, thinking this was another thing to thank Angel and Vail for. "Rome's damn expensive. Dad's got money, so I lucked out. I was wondering how you guys afforded your house."

"The Watchers are paying for it." Her lips pulled into a grim line. "Trust me, if it was up to my salary, I'd be living in that coffin with you."

"I've heard worse ideas," he replied, looking into her eyes.

She blushed just a bit and he probably should feel just as guilty for even suggesting it but he didn't. "You're dangerous."

He tapped his chest, indicating the T-shirt that read ' I _when your mother warned you about the Irish, did she mention me name? /I _ "Like the shirt says."

"Hmm, I think the warning I got was about Liam." Buffy went sad for just a moment.

"That's the other Irish boyfriend?" He couldn't help being perverse and prying into it.

She nodded. "I shouldn't have brought it up. He's always there, you know, never sure if he's really in my past or not." She scuffed a toe on the walkway. "You don't want to hear about him."

"We all have pasts, Buffy. Believe me, my last relationship got too serious too fast and it ended badly," he said. I _Understatement of a lifetime /I ._ He had multiple deaths weighing on him from that, the poor innocent girl he helped Cordelia murder, the death of his own child, the poor cop he probably had beaten to death when his mind fractured into little shards of disjointed sanity, and finally Cordelia's death. If he hadn't gotten her pregnant she would never had been in a coma and subsequently died. Before he left to go back to his 'normal' life, he had Angel take him to where Cordelia was buried. He wanted his dad to leave him there alone but was glad when Angel insisted on being there, at least in the background. He wouldn't have been able to walk out of the cemetery on his own. "I'm not looking to repeat that. I guess I should be up-front about that now."

A shield came down between them, a sudden defensiveness. She had the look of someone who had been badly burned before. "Just looking for a little fun?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, I'm not just looking for a little fling, a little meaningless sex. I could find that anywhere on campus. I don't want you thinking I'm just out for the sex and will be gone by morning. I'm not interested in that, but I'm not sure I'm ready for anything big either."

"I didn't come out here thinking you might be." Her eyes looked old. "You'll be heading back to the States in a few months to go back to school. I don't know where I'll be. Something light and commitment free might be a very nice change for me, too. If it becomes something more, great, it not, that's okay, too. I like the idea of just being...I don't know, free to actually just enjoy myself without having to worry about things. I want someone fun to be with who doesn't have all these expectations right off the bat." She glanced over at him. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"Not hardly. It's good I mean, that we're both on the same page. So, what would you like to do next?" He shifted feeling a little uncomfortable when he thought about the ramifications of what they both had just said, like they were two very hollow, damaged people. I _Quit psychoanalyzing things. You need about a dozen more classes before you'll be any good at it anyhow. /I _

"You know what, I know it's silly but I haven't been to a movie in forever." Her eyes glinted. "And I know you're going to laugh, given what I do, but I want to see I _Van Helsing_. /I "

He did laugh. "Should I interpret that to mean you want to drool over Hugh Jackman?"

She laughed right back. "Can your ego handle that?"

"I'm secure enough in my manhood to survive," he assured her. "Though I wish I could get past Beckinsale's lousy acting enough to even think about drooling over her."

"I hear Dracula has super model brides in this." She patted the hand he had resting on her hip.

The corners of his mouth quirked up. "Ah, well then I'm happy."

"I've met the real Dracula. I'll have to tell you about that some day." Buffy scowled. "Well, parts of it at any rate."

_ I Dracula's real? Did Dad know him? /I _ He knew he shouldn't be too surprised at that tidbit of information but it did make him insufferably curious. "Oh, I have to hear it now."

The movie wasn't due to start so Connor took Buffy to I _ il gelato di San Crispino /I . _She got the honey flavored special while he took away a I _zabaglione_ /I gelato with real Marsala wine flavoring it. They went back to the Trevi fountain with their desserts.

Buffy sighed, savoring a mouthful of the gelato. "This is so good. How did you find out about this place?"

"It's supposed to be the best in Rome."

"I'm going to be back here every day now thanks to you." She kicked his foot playfully. "I'll weigh three hundred pounds."

"Worse things could happen. Besides, you and I together would be lucky to weigh three hundred pounds. " He looked at the fountain, going too serious. "So, do you think Giles and Willow will be able to figure out what it is we're looking for?"

"Never underestimate those two."

"I don't think I'll be making that mistake." He shoveled in some gelato, letting the flavor dance on his tongue before saying, "I'm sorry about goading Andrew. He just gets on my nerves."

"I know the feeling. He just takes it all too seriously. I mean, he should take it seriously. This is deep dark stuff but well, he gets carried away. He gets like that about all his obsessions. Be thankful he's out of the videotaping everything phase." Buffy shuddered.

Connor smiled flatly. "See, that's grounds for murder."

"There are days..." Buffy trailed off and concentrated on her gelato.

They got lost in the simple, peaceful moment. Buffy turned the conservation to his history class and all the sites he planned on seeing for it. They planned to see some together, which told him he was actually making an impression on Buffy. She wanted to see him again and that made him happy. It had been a while since he had felt happy and he figured she might be feeling the same way. With all the talking, they barely made it to the movie in time. Buffy and Connor traded laughs at all the least appropriate times as they slogged through the English subtitling and listening to whoever did Jackman's voice over in Italian trying to sound serious. She was still giggling when they left the theatre. Connor's mood had soured slightly over the whole vampire children thing. He was just as glad he wasn't a long tailed, little, green gargoyle.

"Come on," Buffy said, after he parked his Yamaha and they started walking for the restaurant. "You have to admit the whole idea of vampires breeding is hysterical. I mean, they're dead. They might be able to have sex." She paused for a moment, an indescribable look on her face. "But they can't have kids."

He wanted to tell her how wrong she was but he still didn't feel like that secret should come to light. "Well, it's just stupid that anything that started as human is suddenly laying hundreds of eggs like a queen bee."

"You're taking this way too seriously." She took his hand, swinging it. "Come on, it's funny."

"I guess."

The whole I _Van Helsing /I _ debate raged through dinner. They were both rather glad that vampires really couldn't turn into giant bat creatures nor have quite that much fang. He was steadfast in his conviction that the fate of Anna helped redeem the movie and that it would have been a better one if she had been the werewolf and they had shot for a buddy picture with Van Helsing and Velkan. Buffy was on board with that but he figured it was because of how nicely the prince moved. The movie did substantiate one of his beliefs; it's not a good thing to be chosen by God to do anything. They were debating getting another dessert when Buffy's cell went off.

Her happy expression melted instantly. "Calm down, Concetta. Where are you? Oh, damn. Have you called the others? Stay with her. We're on our way. Call Willow."

"What happened?" Connor said, digging in his pocket for his wallet, figuring they were about to race into action and he'd need to pay the check a.s.a.p.

"Concetta and Alcina were attacked." Buffy's voice was tight. "Alcina's dead."

"Son of a bitch." Connor threw enough money on the table for meal and tip and raced after Buffy to his motorcycle.

None of the others were there yet when they found Concetta in an alley in the eastern side of town. The young woman was crying quietly over Alcina's body. Buffy knelt down, examining the fallen slayer. The girl appeared to have no wounds. Connor sniffed the air. There was a strange, somehow familiar scent in the air. He started tracking it. He heard Buffy ask. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Alcina and I were a few blocks apart. I heard her telling someone or something to stop then she screamed. I found her like this. There's no blood. I don't think her neck is broken...she's just dead, like the others," Concetta said.

Connor lost their voices as he headed down another alley. He thought he saw something, a blur of motion. It put him in mind of a wild-goose chase he and Gunn had been sent on in a cemetery, thanks to Cordelia and the so-called spell to save Angel's soul but he couldn't be sure. He'd talk to Giles about it as soon as he could. He headed back to Buffy before either Slayer wondered where he went. He had a very bad feeling about all of it.


	4. Dealing with shocks

CHAPTER FOUR

_ I All in a day, she saw the face in the mirror lie  
To her dismay, she saw the child that was in her die  
And she cried... overnight  
'Cos what she sees... she doesn't like  
b **The Corrs - All in a Day /b /I **_

Buffy slumped in the courtyard of the practically ancient house she lived in, now down one member of the Slayer family. She heard footsteps behind her but barely looked up. Willow sat on the steps with her while Connor and Giles edged past to stand in the grass.

"I should have been there." She tried not to look at Connor. She knew he felt just as guilty as she did that Alcina was dead.

"Buffy, it's not your fault. Even if you had been on patrol, you might not have been with Alcina. It could have just as easily been you and Concetta out there," Willow said, sympathy woven into her face.

"She was the youngest of us." Buffy caught herself before she punched the stone step. "I should have been with her."

"Buffy, Willow's right. Alcina was no younger than you when you started with Merrick." Giles shoved his glasses up. "Given Concetta's account of what happened, I doubt that there would have been anything you could have done to prevent this. You wouldn't have been any closer to Alcina than Concetta was. You can only move so fast."

Buffy sighed. "I know. I just wanted one day of fun. It's been way too long. And we had fun, too, and then this happens. I can't help but feel a little guilty."

"Understandable." Giles took a few steps closer to her. He looked like he was going to say something more comforting but Buffy froze him with a warning look. She didn't want to be comforted just yet. He changed tactics. "Would you like me to contact Alcina's parents?"

"Please. You're so much more eloquent than I am." She looked up into his soft blue eyes, seeing the fatherly concern there.

He smiled just a ghost of a smile. "Thank you. I'll do that straight away." He slipped past her and Willow, going back into the house.

Willow stood, patting Buffy on the shoulder. "If you need to talk, just come find me."

"Thanks, Will. I'll be okay. I'm just kinda being self-indulgent." Buffy wrinkled her nose. "I don't think I've done that since Sunnydale turned into a smoldering pit."

"Sometimes we're allowed. You've been training so many girls since the whole big bad ugliness." Willow smiled wryly.

"I think I'm getting a little old to be selfish," Buffy muttered under her breath. She saw Connor's head jerk up at that as if he heard. Willow's eyes dimmed.

"It's not selfish to ask the person with the most experience to handle the call home, Buffy. Giles is looking for something to do with himself, too. It's make the call or do book work," Willow said.

"He'll do both," Buffy replied.

Willow nodded. "You okay? I'd like to go cast a seeker spell."

Buffy waved her on. No one knew what her ploy to stop the First was going to do to the longevity of the Slayer line. Every time they got a report of a Slayer death, Willow tried to use a seeker spell to see if a new Slayer was chosen or if the magical pool was now dry. The only problem was they didn't know where all the activated Slayers were yet, and they couldn't be sure if she did get a hit, if it was a previously undetected Slayer from the fall of Sunnydale or if it was someone totally new. She just prayed she hadn't doomed the Slayers to die out in one generation.

"I'm sorry," Connor said, softly.

She glanced up at him, wondering if he meant for Alcina's death or for inviting her on a date that ran over into patrol time. She decided it was both. She patted the steps next to her and he sat. "It's not your fault any more than it is mine. We had to eat, right? We were just about to go out on patrol. I keep telling myself that, but it's not helping."

"I know." A rueful look tugged down his whole face.

She leaned against his bony shoulder. He had sharp angles, even sharper than Spike's. She knew people worried she was too thin. Buffy worried that Connor was. Her mind flashed back to something that happened earlier in the evening. "You went off on your own at the scene like you were following something. What did you see?"

"Nothing." He shifted nervously.

She saw a shadow falling over his face. "It sure looked like you did."

"If I had seen something, Buffy, I'd have told you." Connor got up, his eyes evasive. "I have class tomorrow morning. I should try to get some sleep."

Buffy followed him inside to where everyone was in the living room. Between Giles, Riley, Spike, and Angel trying to protect her or keep things from her, not exactly lying but not exactly telling the whole truth, she had finally developed an eye for when men were doing that to her. "So, what is it you're not telling me?"

"Nothing." Connor paused, seeing all eyes on him. Andrew, Kennedy, and Concetta were working the books. Giles was just putting the phone down, a heaviness in his eyes. Willow glanced up from the sparkly grid floating magically in mid-air.

"There's something." Buffy grabbed Connor's arm and his eyes slotted. For the first time, Buffy got a glimpse of the danger that lurked below his surface. "You wanted to play on the team, Connor. There are no secrets here." _What a joke_, she thought. That's all she and her friends had always been, a bundle of secrets. If they had just practiced open communication, so much pain could have been avoided.

"I don't know anything, Buffy." He pulled a long face. "Not for certain."

"Guesses are entertained here," Giles said, gently.

Buffy saw Connor take stock of all the eyes on him, a hostile little family who had just lost a sister and saw him as withholding help. His shoulders slumped, and he dragged a hand roughly through his hair.

"It reminds me of something I came up against once," Connor said, reluctantly. "A soul eater."

Giles' eyes opened wide, an excited look on his face. "Which kind?"

"Uh, there're kinds?" Connor grimaced. "Look, I can't say this is a soul eater. I don't know if they kill like this. I don't know if they even kill."

"So you did see something," Buffy said, feeling overly irritated at him. "Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because I didn't see it. It's like a hint of something, you know." He swung his fist against his thigh. "I didn't want to focus the investigation on the wrong thing if my impressions were off."

"If you didn't see anything, then why do you think it's a soul eater?" Willow went back to looking at her grid.

Buffy saw that evasive look touch Connor's eyes again. She put a hand on his shoulder and tried to look encouraging rather than accusatory. He smiled up at her then turned incredibly melancholy like he was being forced to tell a deep dark secret.

"I caught a familiar scent," Connor replied, tension tightening his voice.

Buffy shook her head. "There were no smells in the alley."

"Yes, there were," he argued, obvious anxiety in his eyes. "only you can't smell it."

"So how can you?" Andrew shot him a disbelieving look.

"My senses are...superior, I guess. I know what you smell like. I'm not saying that to be gross or anything. You all could disperse into the city and I could find each and every one of you, track you to another city if I had to." Connor paused and his cheeks colored as he surveyed the uncomfortable looks on everyone's faces. "Today, earlier while I was working on my paper and you ladies came out of the work out room, I could tell Giles had sparred with all of you but Andrew only with Alcina and Concetta."

"You could smell them on us?" Buffy felt a twist forming in her stomach. "Like a vampire."

As some of her friends shifted nervously, Connor's face went dark. She saw that glint of fury again. "The reason I didn't want to say anything, beyond the fact I'm not sure about what I smelled out there, is the way you're all looking at me right now, like I'm a freak."

"It's not exactly normal," Concetta said, clutching a book to her chest like a shield.

"I can't help it. This is me." Connor's fists balled. "This is what I can do."

"You said senses, as in all of them?" Willow's eyes burned bright with the curiosity Buffy had long ago come to associate with her friend.

"All of them."

"You mean you can hear us?" Kennedy had a horrified look on her face. "Even when we're...you know...in the other room."

"It's why I sleep with the radio on, to cut down on the noise." Connor seemed to shrink before Buffy's eyes. She suddenly felt bad for doing this to him in front of everyone. She had no idea this was what he was hiding. If she had known, she would have spoken to him privately; more damn secrets. "Besides you and Willow aren't that interesting to listen to, no offense," Connor continued and Kennedy's glare could have smelted iron. "Not even when you're fighting."

"We don't fight," Willow said with an oddly desperate edge. Her eyes flicked over to Buffy.

The Slayer understood. Willow and Kennedy's relationship had been born out of the fear of dying and its sister, the need for closeness in dark times. Buffy understood that intimately. She just didn't know it that was any more solid of a foundation than any of the relationship she herself had ever had.

"Fine. Your discussions then." Connor's lips thinned. "I try not to listen. I don't like eavesdropping. It's why I'm glad you offered me this room. The dorm...I can barely shut it all out. If I stay in the other house, Andrew's computer games keep me awake; that's why I like to bivouac here. I wouldn't feel right about asking Andrew to turn off the computer being a guest and all."

"So, you think you scented this soul eater," Giles steered them back on track, and for that Buffy was grateful.

Connor's expression said he was as well. "I was going to tell you after you made your calls, before I turned in. I just didn't want to put us on the wrong track if I'm mistaken. I didn't see or hear anything. Scent's trickier than sight, and I only came up against one once. But if it is a soul eater, you need to change your attack strategies."

"Now you're going to teach Slayers how to fight." Kennedy sniffed. "Did you overhear us whispering our weaknesses?"

"Kennedy!" Buffy snapped, feeling an urge to bitch-slap her. Ever since the day Kennedy showed up, she had done nothing but challenge everyone. Her brattiness was trying Buffy's patience. "Connor, most of us would be very thankful for any suggestions you have."

"They're fast," Connor replied.

"What isn't?" Kennedy waved him off.

Connor was out of his chair and across the room before Kennedy could move. He pressed his finger tips to her chest just above the swell of her breasts. "That's all it has to do, Kennedy. Touch you, and you're done for. It's not like a vampire that you can beat off of you once it latches on." Connor dropped his hand, stepping back.

"You got too close, didn't you?" Buffy saw something in his eyes she had never seen before, fear.

Connor tore a hand through his fine hair. "I couldn't move after it touched me, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything. I felt it stripping out my soul, hollowing me out, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I can't describe that kind of pain. If I had been alone in that fight, I'd be...well, I'm not sure, dead with my soul gobbled up or alive but a mere soulless husk."

Concetta unconsciously started reaching for her forehead to make the sign of the cross before she caught herself. Buffy could understand the reaction. If it was the same creature that killed Alcina and the civilians, they suffered a more horrible fate than she could imagine. Buffy remembered heaven and how welcome her soul had been, how comforted. What did nothingness feel like?

"So you're suggesting we go out with crossbows and the like," Buffy said.

"Yes. You don't want to touch them if you don't have to. We beheaded the one we were fighting with a sword. Giles, do you want me to help you, see if I can find the thing in your books?" Connor turned his gaze to the older man.

"Connor, didn't you say that you have class tomorrow morning?" Buffy reminded him.

"Yeah."

"You go to bed. If we find anything, we'll wake you up," Buffy said, and to her surprise, he didn't argue. She expected him to fuss but he seemed to be just as happy to escape the room.

"Okay. Just call my name to wake me. I don't like to be touched when I'm sleeping." A pained look fluttered over his face. He had a face made for pain, Buffy thought suddenly. "Sometimes I hit if you shake me awake."

Buffy's eyes widened. "Good to know...do I want to know why?"

"Bad things happened," was all he said before going to the guest room.

"Guess we should get cracking at those books," Willow said, still looking embarrassed.

Buffy nodded without enthusiasm. "Giles, could you and I take a minute." Her eyes canted over to the door to the courtyard.

Giles seemed somehow startled but he nodded, following her outside. Buffy walked to the other house before looking back. Was she out of earshot for Connor? How much had Angel and Spike overhead over the years, keeping inside any pain, joy, or betrayal so not to feel even more ostracized by their abilities?

Giles clasped her elbow. "Buffy, are you all right?"

"I wish I knew, Giles. I feel so selfish for having these thoughts right now." Buffy turned from him, not ready to look into those fatherly blue eyes. "Alcina is dead, and I'm busy being wigged out over Clark Kent in there. I just wanted to have something normal in my life, and now he says all the stuff he just did." Buffy kicked a stone. "Who am I kidding? I've always known he wasn't normal but I didn't know he was this weird."

"And why is this a problem, Buffy?"

Buffy looked at Giles, checking to see if he had head damage that kept him from understanding the problem. Didn't he understand she no longer trusted her judgment in men? Just look at her track record. "We don't know why Connor's different."

"Buffy, it seems to me you're looking for me to disagree or give permission for you to see him," Giles said. " I have always kept out of your love life as much as I could, for better or worse. All I'm going to say on this is you've known from the moment you met Connor he wasn't an ordinary boy, and yet you felt comfortable enough to befriend him and invite him to stay. He's told you he was born this way, and we've all accepted that. I think you should trust your own instincts. For my part, I think he's a decent young man, however odd. If you think you're going too fast or if he makes you nervous, you know what to do. You have to make up your own mind about Connor."

"Guess everything has risks." Buffy tore a hand through her long hair. "I'm wasting time. Let's go and do the research thing."

Giles caught her shoulder as she moved past. "I know you've had bad luck with men, no worse than that. I can understand your concerns."

"But I'm the only one who can make a decision. I know...maybe this should just end before it begins. I don't need the complications, especially with someone I know won't be here long." Her shoulders slumped and she saw a flare of concern in Giles' eyes.

"We may not be here long ourselves, Buffy, just until Concetta's ready to be on her own and I select an appropriate Watcher for her," Giles said, and Buffy stared. She hadn't even thought about leaving Italy. She wasn't sure she wanted to, no matter the exorbitant expense of Rome and the fact she did not have Dawn's gift for languages. "And I also remember being your age and the thrill of a fling, enjoying it for what it was." He shot her a cheeky grin made all the more devilish by the moonlight.

She eyed him sourly. "You used to be so bad."

"Occasionally, I still am."

Her hand shot up. "That's all I want to know about that. Let's get back to work."

Buffy felt guilty about taking the time to worry about her personal life when a young girl had been slain. She couldn't say why Connor's revelation had been the straw that broke the camel's back but it had been. Maybe she needed a vacation, a real one, no demons, no slaying.

The looks her friends gave her made it clearer why she had been so upset. They had been made uncomfortable by knowing what Connor could do and it struck Buffy as odd. They had been at equal risk of being eavesdropped on when Angel and Spike had been part of the group, and it never bothered them. Maybe they hadn't realized, or maybe they were all subtly on guard around the vampires because of what they were and hadn't known to do so with Connor.

Buffy regretted forcing the confession out of Connor. It had been the wrong way to go about it but looking back, she didn't know how else she would have handled it. She needed all the facts and now she had them. She hadn't known he had super senses to go with his strength. If she had had an inkling, she wouldn't have pushed it.

She settled down with a book and the research began in silence. They slowly relaxed into a more normal session. Buffy couldn't keep track of the hours spent looking for soul eaters. Andrew and Kennedy were asleep on the books. Giles and Willow looked ready to follow. Buffy had already sent Concetta off to bed. The youngest slayer had been hardest hit. Death was still new to her.

"I think this is the best we're going to do with what we know," Giles said, lining up some books.

"Three possibilities is pretty good," Willow said, rubbing her tired eyes.

"I'll go wake up Connor." Buffy headed to the bedroom. She almost didn't want to bother him. She knew Connor slept poorly as it was, not that she had spent any time sleeping beside him, but living in the same house it was obvious he did not lay about in bed long. She knocked softly on the door. "Connor." She heard him shuffling around. When he opened the door, his lank hair was sticking up at odd angle. Standing there in jogging pants, his eyes puffy, Connor looked suddenly old.

"Find something?"

"A few things." She took his hand. "Thanks for doing this."

"No big. If it's what I think it is, I want it killed." He stretched, his shoulders popping.

"I know."

"I've made everyone uncomfortable. I'm sorry," he said lowly. "Do you want me to go back to sleeping at the dorm? I'll understand."

Buffy looked into his big, blue eyes and saw his hurt. This was her chance to make a clean break, get out before she was all the way in. It would sting him but he'd get over it. "No, I want you to stay," her heart said, totally out of synch with her brain.

He nodded and went into the living room. Giles waved a hand at the three books on the table. Connor stabbed a finger on the right hand one, even as Giles was asking if any of them looked right. "That's what I'm talking about. I won't swear that's what killed Alcina, but if I had to guess, yeah it is."

"Thank you, Connor." Giles scowled.

"That's not a happy face," Buffy said, a sinking feeling forming in her gut.

"It's the hardest soul eater type to kill. This one you could kill with holy oil." Giles tapped the one in the middle. "And sea water for this one. The one Connor selected is far more resistant. It takes decapitation or removal of the heart."

"We can do that," Kennedy said, still half asleep.

"So long as you remember Connor's admonishment to not let it touch you. He was quite right in that. It only takes a moment for it to take your soul that way," Giles said.

"Nothing's ever easy." Buffy sighed. "Why don't we all call it a night since there's not much left of it?"

"No arguments," Kennedy said, getting up. She held out her hand to Willow.

Willow shook her head. "Go on, I'll be there in a minute."

Kennedy gave her a strained look, spared a hostile one for Connor, then headed back to her bedroom.

"Buffy, can we talk?" Willow asked.

"Sure," Buffy said, suspecting what about.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" Connor asked, as Giles gathered up the book with the right soul eater in it. If he planned on reading more before sleeping, Buffy considered kicking her Watcher's butt.

"No, just get some sleep Connor. If we need anything more, it can wait until after your class. It'll take us that long to come up with some sort of plan," Buffy said.

He seemed unconvinced but he headed off anyhow. Buffy sat on the couch with Willow.

"What's up, Wills?"

Willow looked at her hands. "I didn't want you to think I'm not happy."

"Why would I?" Buffy didn't wait for an answer since she already knew it. "Willow, everyone fights from time to time. This is why Connor didn't want to say anything about what he can do. Guess he knew how freaked out people can get."

"I'm not freaked," Willow protested.

"That's why we're sitting here talking about it at three in the morning, Willow. Your relationship's not my business. I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me about it, but I'm not going to pry." Buffy tried to look comforting but she doubted she looked anything but tired. "Connor doesn't want to either. He tries very hard not to hear things, I guess. Imagine how hard it has to be with him."

"But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? What he is." Willow's wide eyes seemed oddly nervous. Buffy felt it had more to do with Willow being concerned over butting into Buffy's relationship, than any fear of Connor.

"Do you think he's dangerous?" Buffy was curious if Willow had any feelings on the matter. She was learning to trust her friend again after all the unpleasantness of last year.

Willow mulled it over for a moment. "I think I should say yes since there's so much we don't know about him, but no, I don't think he's some big bad hiding in plain sight."

"He's one of the good guys, don't ask me how I know..." Buffy said, wishing she felt more confident of it. Part of her had no doubt; the other part, the part that kept getting burned, was less sure.

Willow smiled. "Isn't a Slayer supposed to sense that sort of thing?"

Buffy scowled. "Yeah, but my radar gets jammed a lot. Damn, ever wish we were just normal girls?"

"Not any more. It'll make you nuts thinking about it."

Buffy got up, stifling a yawn. "Truer words never spoken. I need to get some sleep."

"Good night, Buffy."

"You, too, Wills." Buffy wished her brain would stop flip-flopping on how she felt about Connor. She wished she could concentrate on the more immediate problem of the soul eater. She wished for sleep. She got none of her wishes.


	5. Gravity

CHAPTER FIVE

_ I You with the sad eyes  
don't be discouraged  
oh I realize  
it's hard to take courage  
in a world full of people  
you can lose sight of it all  
and the darkness inside you  
can make you feel so small_

**_ b True Colors - Cyndi Lauper /b /I _**

Connor hoped to sneak out of the house before anyone was awake. He knew he had freaked everyone out and hated it. He should have just lied and said he'd seen the damn Soul Eater. If he had been certain that's what it was, he would have. As it was, he wasn't quite sure that he trusted his nose when it came to the identity of the attacker. He did, however, trust it to tell him that at least one other person in the house was awake. The smell of eggs and garlic wafted through the air. He followed the wonderful aroma to the kitchen in spite of himself. So much for not meeting anyone.

Concetta puttered around the kitchen as she prepared a large repast for what appeared to be a still sleeping household. Connor's stomach rumbled loudly. The savory scents made him ravenous. Concetta, unable to miss the gustatory longings his stomach was broadcasting, looked up at him, smiling softly.

"I know it's a cliché, but when I get upset I cook," she shrugged.

He couldn't really imagine her eating. Concetta weighed next to nothing, having been on course to being a prima danseur before being Called. Of course, everyone assumed he didn't eat and could be blown away in a slight breeze. "Smells yummy."

She gestured to the table. "Sit. Eat."

"I have to get to class," he said, shaking his head.

She glanced up at the clock. "You have plenty of time. Sit."

Connor knew better than to resist an Italian armed with food. He would lose the battle, so he sat and she put a huge plate of frittata in front of him. She took a considerably smaller portion for herself. She watched him intently, and he knew she was waiting for him to say something, anything but probably preferably nothing about Alcina's death.

"Delicious," he said with complete honesty after his teeth dug into the thick sea scallops that had been mixed into the rich egg mixture along with the garlic, cheese and butter. He eyed the coffee machine. "I'll have to make myself a cappuccino before I jet out of here."

She pounced on the machine. "Eat. I'll make it."

"Concetta, you don't have to wait on me," he protested then shoveled in a mouthful of frittata.

"I'm nervous just sitting around." Her hands shook a little as she started frothing his milk. The rest of the espresso and fixings were ready and waiting. She must have been expecting him or someone to join her soon. "I've never seen anyone die before."

Connor got up and hugged her. She appeared to need it. She was too young for this, something he had never felt for himself. He had always been old. "I wish I could tell you it'll never happen again."

She embraced him back. "I know it's something I'll have to get used to but it just...it took me by surprise."

"Death usually does." He gave her an extra squeeze. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You can sit and eat the breakfast I cooked way too much of," she said, grinning.

"I can do that."

Connor made Concetta happy and ate well, then made a promise to dance with her later. Concetta had to practice for one last performance. She knew her career was dead but she wasn't quite ready to let go. Connor didn't know how much Angel had helped to tailor his new memories but he didn't doubt that remembering being in ballet classes since he was five was somehow influenced by his dad. He had partnered Concetta ever since meeting her and Buffy. He was grateful for the implanted knowledge because he sure as hell knew Steven Holtz never had been to a dance, and Connor No Last Name was equally clueless. Connor Reilly understood girls liked men who danced, and he did it well.

He had eaten too much to be anything but sleepy in class. Ms. Ambrosetti sparked some interest in him, not for Renaissance-era Italy, but for her glorious breasts hugged by the red silk of her shirt. As much as he wanted Buffy, Connor couldn't help the fantasies he had about Ms. Ambrosetti.

For Ms. Ambrosetti's part, she was interested in Giles. Connor couldn't remember the off-hand remark he had made about knowing Rupert Giles or why it had come up but Ms. Ambrosetti knew his work in the British Museum and wanted to meet Giles. At the time, Connor had no idea he was playing matchmaker but he liked doing it. For some reason, it made Willow and Buffy nuts but that just served to make him feel more like part of the group.

As Ms. Ambrosetti leaned on the desk, gesturing at the class to make a point - Connor has lost track of which one it was since all his blood was somewhere far south of his brain - he tried not to look at the healthy expanse of olive skin peeking through the V of her shirt. At least it wasn't high school where he'd have to fake not knowing an answer just so he wouldn't be sent to demonstrate at the board, something he'd inevitably be asked to do the moment he'd get the king of boners. _What a joke,_ his mind snarled. _You were never in high school. You spent those years half-afraid of what your body was doing and understanding none of it._ He winced and kicked his inner voice. Still, he had both sets of memories and it was dicey as to which his brain would choose to access at any given moment, and now it wasn't accessing a damn thing beyond the urgent below-the-belt needs.

Between sleepiness and horniness, Connor missed most of the lecture. After moaning a little with his classmates over the big paper they'd been assigned, he went to Ms. Ambrosetti's office to pass on a message from Giles.

He didn't really want to go back home, such as it was. Connor wanted to hide and it wasn't just poor Alcina's death making him feel that way because, God help them both, he didn't know her well enough to really feel her loss. He didn't want to return home because he was humiliated, and he knew it was ridiculous. Buffy, Concetta, and Kennedy were Slayers. Willow and Giles were mages. It wasn't like any of them were normal, except maybe Andrew. Then again none of them were demons or whatever the hell he was. Connor wished he knew and Angel's spell hadn't changed that. What he was deep at his core was a mystery and it disturbed him.

On the other hand, he had no desire to go back to the 'coffin.' The ancient dorm felt oppressive and ugly. He wanted mostly to just go into the city and lose himself for a while. Of course there was that bit of wisdom that said wherever you go, there you are. He couldn't escape being who he was. He would always be the son of two demons, and even if he went to Angel and begged his father to arrange for his mind to be scrubbed clean again, the young man knew it was unfair to himself, to everyone. Something would come along and spoil it. What he should do was call Angel and tell his father that he had run into Willow again, and someone really should put her memory back to rights; Faith, too, where ever she was.

But today, sexual stimulation aside, he was feeling very dark blue. The darkness in him was dragging him under, making him feel small, making him dangerous. He had to tamp his demon back down. That was easy enough to do. He knew restraint but that aside he still wanted to just go home, and toss on Evanescence or Staind and whip himself into a good brood. He wanted Buffy to just wrap him up in her arms and hold him until his darkness passed, but she had bigger concerns with Alcina's death. Sadly for him, he knew he'd be just as happy being held by Concetta or Willow. On an ordinary day, he wouldn't mind being held by any or all of them as a prelude to sweaty fun but today his libido had taken a dive once class let out and he was alone with his thoughts. Inside his head could be a scary place to be.

Connor shut off his chattering brain, parked his motorcycle and started to walk. Walking made him feel better, it took him back to a simpler time. Of course his simpler time was life in hell but damn if he hadn't felt at home there. He was still pushing and pulling at this world, trying to find his place, failing miserably. There were bizarre times, when his soul felt soggy, bleeding from a thousand rents, that he just wished he could make the rip between Earth and Quor-Toth in the reverse and go home.

His feet took him to the Castel Sant'Angelo. Connor glanced at the marble angels that looked down at him as he walked to the strange, round mausoleum. In Rome, one got used to being stared at by cold marble eyes. Statues were everywhere. He studied the serene stone faces and wondered how the hell Angel had gotten his name because surely neither Angel nor Angelus was his father's real name. It had to be some sick vampire joke, he decided. So, what was Angel's real name? Something Irish, probably given his father's reaction when he said his name was Steven.

Connor just kept walking, heading into the mausoleum, wishing Ms. Ambrosetti's class had more to do with ancient Rome. That would have been more interesting than Renaissance up to Victorian times. He had done his own homework on places he had seen or wanted to see, like the Castel. Built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian, it gave Connor something to talk to Giles and Willow about. Giles told him this was the structure from which Puccini's Tosca had tossed herself. So, Connor had listened to the cd much to Buffy's displeasure. A connoisseur of classical and operatic music she was not.

He poked around the place, lingering in the I _Hall of Apollo /I _studying the frescos to that god. Would Angel like something like this? Connor thought maybe he would. Holtz might even have liked it once upon a time before his hatred ate him like a cancer. Was history something Angel liked? What did Connor have in common with his real father? Maybe once he was done with classes in Italy he should try to find that out. The only problem was, he didn't know if he was ready to have Angel back in his life. He didn't know if he could put himself through it all again, and he suspected Angel felt the same way. Even as Connor had been recuperating in the hospital after the averted apocalypse, Angel was jumpy around him. Maybe he was better off just fading into the woodwork, disappearing. Forget Angel, forget Buffy and Faith and all the Slayers, forget the easy camaraderie he felt with Giles, and just pretend he was nothing but a college kid. Except he knew it wouldn't work.

And he had been all over this ground before. There was no sense running in place. He might as well go home and practice with Concetta. On the way back to his bike, he couldn't resist a vendor selling mostaccioli. The buttery cookies, rich with honey, filled his mouth with the strong, cool taste of anise, and he stuffed himself greedily with them, saving back just a few to give to Buffy. She wasn't too experimental with food, as he was finding out, but maybe she'd like the decidedly un-American-styled cookie.

This was more like it, Connor thought. This was the reason he could never go back to being just plain Connor Reilly, big brother to bratty little Tierney, who at fourteen was making him nuts. When night fell, he felt alive. When he could go out and fight and kill, he felt whole, purposeful, which even a beginning psych major like himself should find both telling and disturbing. He knew he had shared this with Faith that time they'd gone out looking for Angelus, and he knew she was a killer. That worried him more. Buffy looked more tired than excited to be out here fighting the good fight, but only until pushed to the wall. Then she came alive, whether she liked to admit it or not. He saw the flicker in her eye, the excitement.

She, Kennedy, and Willow were hunting with him in the area the soul eater had last been seen while Concetta, Giles and Andrew had gone to question the priest who had lost a few parishioners to the soul eater. The night was still young and not much was happening. Kennedy was bored, and being loud about it, while Willow was just as interested in seeing the sights at night as she was in anything else. Connor was busy trying to break Buffy out of her own little world and knew it would take more than mostaccioli to do it. She hadn't liked the licorice-flavored cookies.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked as she and he went around one of the big churches one way while Kennedy and Willow went the other.

She shrugged. "I guess I just need a vacation, you know?"

"Yeah, I do." Truer words were never spoken.

She hip bumped him. "I think you do. You've had this far away look in your eye all day. You seem so down."

"Sorry. It's just...never mind."

Her fingers brushed his arm lightly. "You can trust me, Connor."

He shook his head. "It's not that. I trust you. I wouldn't have told you what I did last night if I didn't but..."

"But being different can royally suck?" She smiled lopsidedly.

He snorted. "Like you wouldn't believe...or maybe you and the Slayers are the few people who could understand." Connor stared at Buffy, realizing she easily understood what it was like to be different even if she couldn't grasp the extra added bonus of being hell-raised.

"Being built for the hard battle...being made for the kill, yeah, I know and it's ugly sometimes," Buffy replied, slinging her hair back. "Sometimes I really hate it."

He only wished he did. "And if not for people like us..."

"Rome gets swallowed up by vampires." Buffy pointed to the shadow of the church where two vampires were harassing a priest. "I mean, could they be more bold?"

"Or stupid. All that priest needs to do is hit them with that huge cross around his neck," Connor called loudly. Yes, this was exactly why he couldn't run from what he was. He was part of the very thin line of defense from the things that go bump in the night.

The priest actually listened and fried the hand of the vampire holding him. The creature swore in Italian, letting the priest go. The man bolted and just kept on going, abandoning his church in lieu of saving his life. Connor and Buffy gave the vampire and his companion something more to swear about. The two vampires swarmed up the church and started cutting over the high, sharply slanting, slick slate roof. Connor went up easily. Buffy followed slightly more slowly. He gave her a hand up, figuring in Sunnydale, too near to earthquake central, she wasn't used to scaling tall buildings.

She caught the female vampire easily and the fight was on. Connor ignored it, knowing Buffy in no way needed his help for one vampire. He lunged at the male vampire, who moved faster than Connor anticipated. They ended up a tangle of limbs and started skidding down the church's roof. The vampire kicked free and started climbing back up, to rescue his girl, Connor suspected. He was actually surprised by that. He figured vampires were more every man for himself types.

The male vampire arrived way too late. Buffy whirled through the woman's dust and nearly lost her footing on the old slate. Connor made a grab for the remaining vampire, bringing the stake around. The vampire tossed him and Connor tossed the stake. The vampire went up in a cloud and Connor tucked in for a back flip and landed one foot on either side of the church's huge cross, the top of the stone structure brushing just under his groin.

"That was cool," Buffy said, appreciating the acrobatic display.

He steadied himself, grinning like a fool. "Almost turned myself into a castrato."

She beamed. "We couldn't have that."

Connor hoped what she meant by that was she had some interest in him retaining all his most important parts. Connor heard a noise and glanced down from his perch. "Oh shit!"

"What?" Buffy was instantly all business again.

Connor flung a hand out. "To the west of the church, the soul eater and Willow and Kennedy. Willow!" he bellowed. "Move now!"

The witch dived through a church doorway as the demon homed in on her. Kennedy planted a crossbow bolt in the soul eater's back but didn't even so much as slow it down. It turned toward her, and Willow stepped back out of her shelter, chanting. Connor swore he could feel the magic energy whipping around them, heeding her call.

"We have to get down there," Buffy said, cautiously picking her way down the roof.

Kennedy took another shot but the soul eater closed the distance between them in a blink of an eye. She tried a spin kick and followed it up with a few quick jabs.

"Kennedy, no!" Connor yelled. "Don't engage it hand to hand!"

Connor leapt straight from his perch, his strong legs propelling him away from the roof into free fall. Even as the night air streamed past him as his righting mechanisms kicked in like a cat's so he'd land in something other than a splat, he saw the demon put a hand on Kennedy's chest. Willow's concentration broke and she screamed her lover's name. Buffy kicked off the lower lip of the roof but both he and she hit ground far too late.

Connor had his sword out, scything it. The soul eater's head came off with one clean stroke, even as Buffy's sword almost kissed Connor's side as she thrust it into the demon's chest. Willow shoved past them.

"We can't be too late," she was muttering as she went to her knees.

Connor said nothing, knowing they had been. He had seen the last of the light leaving Kennedy before he struck. Willow tried to revive Kennedy. Buffy helped with the CPR. Connor couldn't help them with it, and he knew it was a lost cause. He went and gathered the demon's head then called Giles.

"Giles...yeah, the soul eater's dead but we lost Kennedy. Buffy and Willow are trying but...I don't think...I saw it finish its work," he said, groping blindly for words. "What? You spotted one, too? Damn. No, I'll tell her later." Connor rang off and called for an ambulance. He put the head next to the women then grabbed the body. That he hid in the nearest church yard mausoleum that he could break the lock on.

Willow was sobbing and Buffy cradling her by the time he finished with disposal duty. Buffy looked up at him. "Why did you save the head?"

"I'm going to put it somewhere else. The one I fought...we're the ones who dug the damn thing up in the first place. It had been in the ground for a very long time, and it came out alive. I'm not sure what will happen if I put the head near the body. It might reattach and come back to life. I've known demons like that. I'll put the head in a different spot. I've told Giles and called for an ambulance," he said very matter of factly, feeling a creeping numbness growing in him, and seeing it in Buffy's eyes as well.

"What did Giles tell you? I heard you swear."

"There're more of them. He and Concetta saw another one but lost it. It almost got Andrew." Connor brushed his hand over Willow's back. "I'm so sorry, Willow. I should have been faster."

She looked up at him, tears staining her cheeks. Her fingers brushed his. "You tried. Can't fall faster than gravity."

He didn't say anything. Connor just scooped up the head and went to find it a resting spot.

Connor lifted his head off the pillow, hearing a faint knock on his door. It had been a long night with Kennedy's death following so closely on the heels of Alcina's and even more so because of her involvement with Willow. He had considered briefly going back to his dorm room and giving them all space since they were pretty much family and he was an outsider. In the end, Buffy made the decision for him, relying on him to take Giles and Concetta back to where he had interred the soul eater so they could get a good look at it. Giles took notes and a few samples.

When they got back, Buffy had called in someone named Xander and her sister, Dawn. She called Faith, too. Andrew was busy getting rooms ready for them for whenever their planes arrived tomorrow. Willow had sunk into a numb silence, and, after conferring a long time with Giles, she had gone to sleep. During their trip back to the church, Giles had told Connor that Willow's last lover had been murdered as well, and that Willow's reaction had been even worse than could have been expected. He understood that, wondering briefly if he could have killed Jasmine had Cordy not been in a coma; would he have been moved to force his father to kill him with the grand play at the mall if his love hadn't been shredded? He knew squat about comforting people but had enough empathy to realize they wanted him to hang around.

Connor stumbled out of bed, managing to find his boxers. He opened the door and wasn't very surprised to see Buffy standing there, looking wrung out. "Buffy, what..."

She pushed past him then shut the door behind her. She clicked the lock. "How many times do we have to live through this?"

"I don't know what to say to make it better," he admitted, not sure if he should touch her or not.

"Don't need you to say anything," she muttered. "Words can't make it better. I need you to..." She went silent, looking away.

He couldn't read her face in the darkened room. Buffy threw her arms around him. He held her tight, thinking that's what she needed from him, closeness, a safe place to be. Her lips met his with a wild hunger that he wasn't expecting. Connor found himself being pushed down on the bed. Buffy threatened to devour him whole. Her strong hands had his boxers down around his ankles in one smooth move. He knew about the psychological drive that kicked in, in the face of death, that need to celebrate life. He had even seen it in action that time with Cordelia, and he had to quash that thought or he'd be useless to Buffy.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, wresting his lips away from hers.

"Even before tonight," she said, huskily.

He didn't argue further and simply gave himself over to her to take what she needed from him.


	6. Morning After

CHAPTER SIX

_Can you tell me what you want  
Cause I've got no idea what I need  
Is this where we both get off  
Can you tell me what you see  
Cause I'm not sure what I believe_

_**Fragile - Brother**_

Buffy woke to the sound of a soft murmuring in her ear. An arm was thrown carelessly over her. Last night filtered in, bringing with it some of the guilt. Willow had lost another girlfriend and what did Buffy do? She had done something desperate and knew she should regret it. However, Buffy didn't feel regret. Yes, there was a bit of guilt but she had needed last night.

Buffy squirmed a bit to get out from under Connor's arm. He murmured louder. Was he having a dream? She rolled onto one elbow, watching him. She knew he had watched her sleeping last night, having woken up just briefly while he was studying her. She studied him, trying to figure out what she had found attractive about him. He wasn't her type, not really.

In sleep, he looked so innocent, so young. His lips were parted, moving slightly. He was whispering something in his slumber. She did like his lips, full, mobile and not without talent but it was probably those sad blue eyes that captured her. Buffy was a sucker for eyes. Angel's had been so dark and broody; Riley's innocent and wholesome; Spike's betrayed his every emotion. Connor's eyes seemed too old for him and now closed, that air of being ancient and haunted, gone, he seemed to be little more than a child.

Of course, last night proved he was anything but a boy. He handled the Soul Eater so deftly she had felt superfluous. Behind closed doors, he made her the most important person in the room. Whatever she wanted, he gave to her. She wasn't used to that. Yes, she had beaten Spike around and taken what she needed but that was different. With Angel she hadn't even really known what she was doing and with Riley things had been so, well, normal. She hadn't ever been with someone so eager to please.

She stroked his neck and he reached for her, still asleep. She caught that hand, remembering the blush of rose that had come over him as they made love, the warmth of him. It had been a while since she had had that. Would she miss Connor when he left after his class was done? Yes, she just might.

Connor started kicking in his sleep, moaning and mumbling almost incoherently. All Buffy caught was 'no, Father, don't.' She knew a bad dream when she saw one. Remembering his warning about hitting, she grabbed both his hands and called his name at the same time. His eyes popped open and in that moment Buffy knew he wasn't seeing her. Connor shuddered and she relaxed her grip on him. Connor shook his head as if to clear it.

"Sorry." he muttered. "Did I wake you up?"

"No." She stroked his shoulder. "You okay?"

He nodded, dragging a hand over his face as he settled back down against the bed. He smiled at her, reaching up a hand to caress her neck. "I'm fine. You're cute in the morning."

She smiled, knowing her hair was a mess and she probably had remnants of make up on her face. "You lie and I thank you for it." She swung her legs off the bed, sitting up. She looked over her shoulder at him. "Connor, about last night, I don't think we should tell-"

"What?" he snapped, sitting bolt upright. His eyes turned a dangerous stormy blue. Buffy saw that wicked temper she suspected he had. "Why?"

She put a hand on his slender chest, feeling it heaving. "Connor...I...okay, I phrased that badly. I just meant that I need to think about Willow right now and all our friends coming in for the funeral. I didn't want to muddy the waters with my personal stuff."

"That's not what I thought you were going to say," he grumbled, giving her a mistrusting look. "If you think last night was a mistake tell me now."

"That's not what I was going to say, honestly. I don't think it was a mistake...the timing maybe." Buffy cupped his chin, reading the sheer amount of pain in his eyes. "Someone hurt you bad, didn't they? Used you?"

His eyes went so incredibly sad, Buffy felt like crying herself. "Yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to overreact. It's just...it happened kinda like before, a really bad night then sex then I got kicked to the curb because it was a 'mistake' and it hurt."

She slid an arm around him. "I know. It's happened to me, too," she said, thinking of Parker. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was reminded it had happened with Angel, too. She fought that thought back down. It hadn't been Angel's fault.

"Sorry." He stroked her hair back out of her face. "That it happened to you, too, and for me being so defensive."

"It's okay. I shouldn't have hit you with that just as you were waking up out of a nightmare." She caught his hand. "You want to talk about it?"

He shook his head. "Don't really remember it other than it was scary. And as to your friends, even if Willow hadn't just lost her lover, I wouldn't have been planning to tell anyone our business. It's not like I was gonna go through the house waving your panties over my head."

Her nose wrinkled. "Okay, eww. Where did that thought come from?"

"Life in my frat house." He shrugged. "You won't believe the weirdness that can go on."

Buffy smiled, thinking of Riley again. "Oh, I've seen what can go on in a frat house. It makes me wonder if I'll ever understand men."

He laughed. "We are a strange bunch."

"Finally, a man who'll admit it," she said, a hint of smugness in her voice.

He snaked his arms around her. "Generally, I try to avoid the more extreme weirdness that can be found in a frat house. I'll confess to some monumentally stupid stunts born of keg parties, just in case you should ever come across any letters, photos or emails of an incriminating nature."

She laughed, kissing him. "I'll take that as a warning. And I'll be happy if my sister doesn't embarrass me once she gets here."

He pulled her on top of him. "Now I know the keeper of the secrets."

"No fair. It's not like I have a shot at questioning your frat brothers." She ran her hands down his sides, feeling the sharp angularity of him.

"Or worse _my_ sister," he said, smoothing a hand over the small of her back and buttocks. "The advantage is currently mine."

"I need to go," she said, feeling the hardness of him pressing into her thigh. He mumbled something that might have been an affirmative. It was hard to tell with his lips pressed against her neck. She rolled off him onto the mattress. "Do all men wake up frisky?"

"Maybe you're just inspirational," he said.

Buffy laughed.

He moved up, propping himself over her, and whispered, "_Trovommi Amor del tutto disarmato et aperta la via per gli occhi al core, che di lagrime son fatti uscio et varco._"

"My Italian's not good enough to translate that," she pouted. "I thought I heard the word love."

"It's one of Petraca's love sonnets." Connor brushed his lips over hers. "'Love found me all disarmed and found the way was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes, which have become the halls and doors of tears'."

"That was very sweet," she said, trying not to think of the other men who used to quote poetry to her. Buffy gave in to need over reason.

This time their love making was slower, more tender, less demanding than the night before. Afterwards, Buffy left Connor with a kiss and headed into her master bath. The hot water helped lift her spirits even more than good morning sex had. Connor wasn't in bed when she came out. She assumed he had gone to his room or to the main bathroom down the hall.

The smell of breakfast lured her into the kitchen. Her stomach growled loudly. Concetta was busy with making the morning meal while Giles fixed a pot of tea.

"Morning, Buffy," he said. "Tea or coffee?"

"Tea, thanks. Italian coffee can dissolve a stomach. Sorry, 'Cet." Buffy sank down at the table.

The young Slayer smiled, setting down a huge plate of spaghetti frittata in front of Buffy before the elder Slayer could protest. "No offense taken."

"Have you seen Willow yet?" Buffy dug into her breakfast.

Giles shook his head. "No and I'm torn between letting her sleep or..."

"Being afraid she's not sleeping and we need to prepare for an onslaught," Buffy said, feeling queasy. She should have been considering that possibility and not enjoying herself, getting lost in her own need to escape.

Giles nodded and Concetta gave them a curious look. Buffy didn't explain the past to the girl. She shoveled in a few more mouthfuls of food and excused herself. She rapped lightly on the door and thought she heard a muffled 'come in.'

Willow was awake fully dressed and curled up in the bed, hugging Kennedy's pillow. There were no signs of black hair or eyes, no veiny-ness.

"I know you probably don't feel like eating but Concetta has a nice breakfast waiting," Buffy said lamely.

Willow nodded. "Figured."

"Want to talk?"

Willow shrugged and Buffy sat on the edge of the bed. "It feels different, you know?"

"What does?" Buffy asked.

"Kennedy's death." Willow's face crumbled. "I hate feeling it. I hate saying it."

"But your world isn't ending, not like it did when Tara died and you feel like you must have loved Kennedy less or something," Buffy filled in the blanks. She took Willow's hand. "Then you feel like the worst person in the world for even thinking it."

Willow nodded. "It's horrible."

"I know. I felt entirely differently about sending Angel to hell compared to selecting Spike to die wearing that amulet. I loved them both but I loved them differently. My grief was different." Buffy made a face. "Which wasn't the best example, I guess, since they both came back."

"No, it's okay." Willow squeezed her hand. "I get what you're saying. It helps...knowing I'm not the only one to feel like this." She brushed her hand across her eyes, wiping away tears. "We've all lost so much, all of us. Where does it end?"

Buffy looked away. "I'm not sure that it does, not in this kind of life. Willow, I should have been dead two times over."

"Slayers don't live long. I knew that starting out with Kennedy but knowing it and facing the reality is so different," Willow said, sounding as fragile as the porcelain flower vase on the dresser.

Buffy wished there was something she could do to help. She felt so inadequate at the moment. Her life was about dealing death, not dealing with the aftermath. "Is there anything I can get for you, Willow? Anything I can do?"

"I'll be all right," Willow said unconvincingly as she got up. "Maybe a little coffee or something."

Buffy held out a hand and Willow took it. "Anything you need, let me know."

"I will." Willow sucked in her bottom lip. "I don't want you to worry. It's not like before."

Buffy kept the look of relief off her face. "I'm here for you, Willow, anything you need."

Willow managed a fragile smile. "Thanks, I appreciate it, Buffy."

Giles was gone from the kitchen when they arrived but Connor was there being mothered by Concetta, who was encouraging him to eat a mound of food that Buffy couldn't imagine him being able to fit inside his slender form. They both hushed as Willow came into the room and sat down at the table.

"Can I get you anything, Willow?" Concetta asked tentatively.

"Just coffee," Willow mumbled.

Concetta poured her some and gave her some biscotti as well.

"Willow, if there's anything you need, let me know," Connor said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She almost managed a smile for him. "Thanks."

"And I'm sorry I wasn't faster," he said again. Buffy could see the guilt in his eyes.

Willow tapped his fingers. "I know you tried."

He nodded. "Giles went to get your friends and family from the airport. He'll be gone for a while since everyone's coming in from all over."

"The only room in this house was Alcina's. I could redo it for the guests or they could all stay over with Giles and Andrew," Concetta said, with the fretful tone of someone at loose ends trying to find purpose.

"I can move over with the guys so at least one of the girls can stay here with you," Connor said. "Or actually go back to my dorm room where I belong."

"We'll figure it out later. We've still got work to do." Buffy said apologetically. Willow nodded her consent for a change of topic, looking grateful for it. "Concetta, you and Giles saw another Soul Eater across the city from where Kennedy was attacked."

Concetta nodded. "Giles and I were going to go back today and see what we could find out but..."

"I could go with Concetta," Connor offered, eager to help.

"Your nose will certainly come in handy," Buffy said, wrinkling her nose. "And that sounded so gross."

"Go with them, Buffy," Willow put in.

Buffy turned to her, looking at her friend as if she had suddenly turned purple and grown another head. "I can't just leave you alone here."

"Andrew's here, right? I won't be alone," Willow replied. "Buffy, I'll be fine. You have my word, no bad magic."

Buffy didn't want Willow to think that she didn't trust her and it hurt that she obviously did. The truth was Buffy wasn't sure about Willow's stability and that hurt worse. It was always in the back of her mind, what could happen if Willow lost control. There was a rift in their friendship, unspoken, unwanted, but there nonetheless. "Are you sure about this, Willow? Andrew can be a bit annoying at the best of times."

"I'll be fine. Andrew will probably fuss over me until you get back. I might just look through Giles' books. I don't think I can just sit here and do nothing. Work will take my mind off of everything. Working's good," Willow assured her, trying to put on her resolve face. It almost looked convincing.

"Okay, if you think so."

"I do."

Buffy reluctantly let Willow have her way, while she, Connor and Concetta went to backtrack the area the second Soul Eater had been hunting in. Buffy was only half interested in the work. She was too concerned about Willow. She tried to drag her attention back to the job at hand. She watched as Connor and Concetta prowled along, Connor taking directions from Concetta as the young Slayer pointed out where they had spotted the demon. Something clicked in Buffy's brain.

"'Cet, are you sure it was here by the church?"

Concetta pushed her dark curly hair back off her face. "Yes, why?"

"The one that killed Kennedy was at a church as well," Buffy replied.

"Didn't you say some of the other victims were parishioners of a specific church?" Connor asked.

Buffy's lips pursed. "Yes, it's not far from here, right, Concetta?"

She nodded. "Father Gabrielle's church is just a few blocks away. Do you think it's important?"

"I'm not much on coincidence," Buffy rumbled.

"Can souls be enriched?" Connor asked. "We talk about them being impoverished. Could a deep faith in something, regardless of religious affiliation add a special flavor to the soul?"

"That's a Giles question," Buffy said with a helpless shrug. She wished she were better with all the details of a thousand demons than she was. "But it would make sense as to why we seem to be finding these things close to churches."

"That doesn't exactly narrow the search, not in Rome," Concetta said wryly.

Buffy sighed. Concetta had a good point. There were probably more Catholic churches in Rome than in all of California and then there were all the other faiths to consider. "So now what?"

"Why not talk to the priest again, Father Gabrielle? We know one of his parishioners went missing along with several others in this area. That's the one place we know the Soul Eaters have struck multiple times. Coincidence, maybe but I'm with you on that subject," Connor said.

"Think we can talk to Father Gabrielle, Concetta?" Buffy asked.

"We'd probably need an appointment but we can try and maybe at least get an idea of what the parish is like from his assistants," the younger Slayer answered.

She wasn't wrong. Father Gabrielle wasn't available. One of the older priest's assistants set up an appointment for them to talk to the priest for them. Buffy watched the younger priest's expressions as Concetta chatted amiably with him in Italian. The priest seemed somehow nervous. Connor was busy stalking the church, looking for what Buffy wasn't sure. Maybe that's what had the priest concerned, a stranger just roaming around.

She tapped Concetta's shoulder and whispered, "Ask him what Father Gabrielle's like."

Concetta nodded and Buffy watched as the priest's expression became more nervous. Something was wrong. She wished she had her sister's gift for languages or at least a little patience to try to learn Italian. She did understand Concetta was thanking him and getting up as if to go. Obviously the man was either busy or didn't want to talk about his superior.

Concetta signaled for Buffy to follow her, not looking like she wanted to speak where she might be overheard. "I saw Connor go into the sacristy. We should round him up then go," the younger girl said.

Buffy followed her, not really sure what a sacristy was. Concetta led the way to a small room off the front of the church, not that far from the altar. Connor was staring at a marble baptismal font that looked like it had been shunted aside and forgotten in a corner. She put a hand on her lover's shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

He shook his head but his eyes said something different. He was apparently on Concetta's wavelength, not comfortable with talking in the church. They went outside and he turned to Concetta. "How far to the catacombs from here? Where we went in is pretty close, right?"

"Not far at all," she confirmed.

"Okay, you two, spill," Buffy ordered. "What's going on? That priest seemed a little nervous and Connor, you look like you know something."

"Father Girardi is nervous," Concetta said. "I think we should go back to the house and talk this over with Giles. Father Girardi saidFather Gabrielle is rather stern, very concerned about the amount of sin in his parish, almost obsessed by it."

"Well, wouldn't most priests be like that? Isn't that like their job?" Buffy asked, having no real close relationships to any church or priests, ever.

Concetta glanced up at the stained glass. "I think it's more than that. Father Girardi seemed to think Father Gabrielle believed that his flock was beyond hope. That's not at all normal."

"That might explain what my nose was telling me," Connor said.

"Which was...," Buffy encouraged.

"I thought maybe I had caught a whiff of the Soul Eater inside the church. That might make sense since we know it's taken someone from here once and went into the catacombs," Connor replied. "What didn't make sense was the smell clinging to that baptismal font. It should have no real smell at all. I mean, holy water's just water that's had prayers said over it. There's no unusual smell. Maybe a little holy oil might get mixed in but that wasn't the scent. It didn't smell like church, you know, no myrrh and frankincense."

"What are you saying? That someone used that font to conjure up something?" Buffy asked uneasily.

Connor shuddered. "Yeah, I am. I don't know what. I can't identify the smell but there's something there. I think Concetta's right. We should talk to Giles. Maybe he's back from the airport by now. I don't know enough to be more helpful. I can't sort out the scent."

"Let's go back. I want to know more before we go blundering around in the church or into the catacombs." Buffy glanced back at the ancient stones of the building. "I don't want to alert anyone if one of those priests or some parishioner here called those things up."

They headed back for the homes. Giles' car was back. Buffy didn't get two steps inside when she found herself with an arm full of little sister. Dawn pressed herself close and when she stepped back Buffy could see her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.

She patted Dawn's arm. "You look good, Dawn. I've missed you so much."

Dawn forced a smile. "Same here." Her eyes slid over to Connor, curiosity gleaming in them.

"Dawn, this is Connor, my...friend," Buffy said, acutely aware of the blush creeping up her cheeks. "Connor, my sister, Dawn."

He smiled and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

"Same here. Buffy's told me a little about you," Dawn said, her eyes taking careful stock of him.

"You taken to trolling the high schools for dates, B?" Faith's voice boomed through the living room as she came in. "He's a little...little for you." She made a downward gesture to indicate Connor's definite lack of height.

Buffy saw the stricken look in Connor's eyes as her uncouth sister Slayer flayed him. She didn't blame him, but it seemed like more than merely offense at being called little and young, almost as if he knew her and was deeply affronted. "Faith, honestly, could you be more rude? Connor, this is Faith, another Slayer."

He managed to find a smile for her. "Hello, Faith."

She raised her eyebrows and turned to Buffy. "We're not going with secret identities?"

"Connor already knew what Slayers were when I met him. He comes from a family of demon hunters," Buffy said, not entirely sure it was true but it sounded good. "He helped me kill that Soul Eater last night. Where's Giles?"

"In the library with Andrew, Xander, and Willow. They weren't doing much beyond the comforting thing." Faith hunched her shoulders in. "I'm no good at that."

"You might want to hear what we've got to say," Buffy said. "We might have a break."

Faith looked relieved to hear that there might be something she could help with. "Good."

They all went into the library. Xander was sitting next to Willow, an arm wrapped around her. He was looking somehow older, Buffy thought, tanned from the African sun. He was still sporting the eye patch even though he had talked about getting a glass eye. It struck her suddenly how lonely he looked. Some of that burned away when he saw her. Xander smiled broadly, leaving Willow, albeit gently.

Xander hugged her without words. When he finally let her go, he asked, "How are you holding up?"

"Good," she replied. "You?"

"Wish this wasn't the reason we're all back together but I like the feel of being in the same hemisphere for a change," he answered.

Buffy nodded. She knew exactly what he meant. "Xander, this is Connor. He's helping us out. Connor, this is Xander, Willow's oldest friend. He's been doing the Watcher thing in Africa."

To her surprise and horror, neither of them held out a friendly hand. They were staring at each other with barely disguised alpha male challenge looks.

Finally Connor, not breaking eye contact, said, "Nice to meet you."

"Same here," Xander said in a tone that suggested just the opposite. "Andrew's told me about you."

Buffy watched Connor's eyes flick over to the other man and knew Andrew would be dead if Connor could kill with a glance. She didn't blame him. She could only imagine what kind of skewed version of events Andrew had shared with Xander, who would probably be receptive. He never liked her boyfriends with the possible exception of Riley.

"Do you think Giles could spare us a minute or does Willow need him?" Connor asked Xander, sounding stiff and formal to Buffy.

"We can talk," Giles said, obviously keeping his eye on things.

They all sat down and brought everyone up to speed on their suspicions about the church and the baptismal font. Giles seemed suitably impressed.

"And you'll be meeting with Father Gabrielle tomorrow?" he asked.

Buffy nodded. "Maybe you should go with Concetta. You'd know better what to ask. Me, Connor, and Faith can kick around the church, maybe sneak into the catacombs or something, if we don't track down the Soul Eater tonight."

"Or even if we do. We know this is the second of them. There could be more," Connor said.

"Way to be optimistic," Andrew said, and Connor curled his lip at him.

"No, Connor's right. We have no idea how many deaths there's been and how many Soul Eaters there might be," Buffy said, not out of defense for her lover but because she knew he had a point and didn't want any officiousness and territorial squabbling from Andrew tonight.

"What do we do while you're doing that?" Dawn asked, waving a hand to indicate herself, Xander, and Andrew.

"You can look through the death records for any kind of suspicious but natural deaths all through the city and especially in the areas we know the Soul Eaters were," Buffy said. "Xander and Andrew can be looking to see what's needed to conjure up one of those things, especially stinky herbs. Let's see if we can match it to the smell of the baptismal font...and you can be here to do whatever Willow might need."

Willow smiled faintly. "I'll give them a hand with all of that and with..." She swallowed hard. "The funeral preparations." She looked up at Xander as he put a hand on her arm.

"If you want one of us to do that, Will, just say so. I know you wanted to but if it's too hard, one of us can take care of everything," Buffy offered.

Willow shook her head. "I want to do it and I have help." She glanced at Xander and Dawn. "You do what you need to to stop these things and we'll do our part."

Buffy knew Willow was putting on a brave front and she also understood the need to work. She had felt the same thing when her mom was sick. Buffy knew that wasn't exactly the same thing but it was close enough. "Thanks, Willow and anything you need, just ask. Faith, you up for patrolling tonight?"

"I'm a little jet lagged," the dark-haired Slayer admitted begrudgingly. "But if I can get a nap in I'll be fine."

Buffy nodded. "Do that. You'll be with Concetta tonight. I'll take Connor. I want us all to concentrate on the area of the second Soul Eater until we hear about activity elsewhere."

Buffy just hoped she was making the right call in concentrating their efforts, but Rome was so big and they were so few. She had to trust her instincts. She just hoped talking to the priest tomorrow would shed light on the problem. More importantly, she hoped Willow really would be all right. She didn't have the heart to face down her friend again.


	7. catacombs

CHAPTER SEVEN

_What do I have but negativity  
'Cause I can't justify the way, everyone is looking at me  
(Nothing to lose)  
Nothing to gain/ hollow and alone  
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own _

_Linkin Park - Somewhere I belong _

Connor moved in time with the music, feeling odd about being in the training room with Concetta. There was no disrespect meant to Willow or to Kennedy's memory. Concetta had energy to burn and a dancer's discipline to practice no matter what. He doubted that anyone would even be awake at this hour of the morning.

He had gone to bed alone last night, Buffy having spent her time, quite naturally, with her sister and her friends. He had debated going home to the dorm but a late night storm that cut patrolling short had changed his mind. He hadn't slept well though. Connor wished he could say he had lain awake thinking about Willow and her pain but the truth was it put him in mind of Cordelia, Jasmine and the friends he had lost.

The lack of sleep was making him clumsy now, as least in his own eyes. He felt a half step out of synch with Concetta but she was lost in her own body, moving and anticipating him. He would be forever grateful to his father for giving him this grace. Oh, he had grace enough as a fighter but he knew dancing would have been beyond him. It was one thing to have elegance and another to find a rhythm. This was a gift, even if he was mutilating the steps to _Swan Lake_. Connor did manage to make his mark and swung Concetta up overhead as he spun in time to the music.

"That is really beautiful. Why don't you want us to watch you guys practicing?"

At Buffy's voice, Connor nearly dropped Concetta over backwards. Firming his grip on the young Slayer, he set her down gently.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Buffy said.

"It's okay," Concetta said, her embarrassment at getting caught mirroring Buffy's at disrupting them. " I know we probably shouldn't be here dancing with everything that's happened."

Buffy smiled softly. "It's okay, Concetta. Sadly you get all too used to death. You're lucky to have a good outlet. Your dancing was so pretty. Reminds me of when I used to ice skate. I haven't been since..."

Connor saw the pain in Buffy's eyes. He chalked it up to yet another lasting trauma. Apparently Slayers collected scars like he did. "Something bad happened then," he said, more statement of fact than inquiry.

"A band of supernatural assassins were after me and my boyfriend. I can't believe that was over five years ago already." A little pout settled on Buffy's lips. "Am I getting old?"

"Age is relative," Connor said, wiping beads of sweat off his forehead. "I like a little age, always have I guess." He didn't know where he got it from but it was true. He simply liked women who were older than him. It was sexy.

"So you picked me because I'm old?" Buffy wrinkled her nose at him.

Connor smirked. "You are so far from being old, it's not funny. You're older than me and it's a turn on. But I'm betting that you didn't come here to see if I thought you were old. What's up?"

"We're going to pay a visit to the priest later today." Buffy turned to the younger Slayer. "Concetta, Giles and Dawn want to talk to you about the questions to ask the man. The three of you will be handling the priest. Me, Faith, Connor, and Xander will be poking around."

Connor's eyes narrowed. He didn't have to be told Xander didn't particularly like him. Also, this arrangement left Willow alone again and that concerned him. "Will Willow be okay alone?"

Buffy shrugged but Connor saw she wasn't as laissez faire as she probably wanted to appear. "She says she'll be fine. We won't be gone all that long."

Connor wished he knew the whole story. There was something about Willow that he clearly didn't know and it made the others jumpy. "Does Willow want to come with us?" Connor knew some people liked to work through their grief. For all he knew, Willow was one of them. He was also aware of how people liked to put their grieving friends in bubble wrap to shield them, not realizing how they were actually smothering them.

Buffy's big eyes suggested she had not only bubble wrapped Willow, she had duct taped it into place. "I never thought to ask. I'm sure she'd rather be left alone but I guess it couldn't hurt to ask."

"Then give us a few minutes to shower and we'll join you," Concetta said, dabbing at her sweaty face.

"Don't let me get in the way of that." Buffy grinned.

It didn't take Connor long to rinse off and join the others in the living room. He was aware of all the eyes on him. Faith looked at him almost dismissively which rather hurt. Xander had a look that screamed Connor was an outsider. It was a familiar feeling for Connor, unwanted and ugly. He wondered if he would ever find a place where he was the piece that finished the puzzle.

"Ready to rock, kid?" Faith asked as he sat down.

"Got a name," he muttered, going back to that old argument.

She rolled her shoulders, disinterested in his annoyance. "Yeah, I know."

"I'm ready. I just wanted to ask if Willow wanted to help out," Connor said, looking over at the redhead.

"How insensitive," Andrew popped off, jumping up to put a hand on Willow's shoulder, cutting off her response. Connor thought she had been about to say yes. "Our poor Willow just suffered a deep loss and you ask her to act like nothing happened. You obviously just don't understand loss."

"I know all about loss, Andrew," Connor said, his voice low and dangerous.

Andrew missed all the warning signs. "Obviously you don't or you wouldn't want to make Willow work."

"Some people find it therapeutic," Connor replied, his lips skinning back off his teeth. "And you know nothing of my losses."

Andrew sniffed at him. "A rich spoiled college student, you think you can even begin to understand Willow's pain at having a second lover murdered?"

Connor saw Buffy bristle at that, a flash of fury in her eyes for Andrew but he decided to ask about it later. He had his own emotions to wrestle. He turned to Willow. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it happened before." He whipped back over to Andrew, poking him hard in the chest. "And just so you know, last year I lost my girlfriend. She died of complications of childbirth. Our daughter died a few days later so don't tell me I don't understand loss." Connor's voice went rough, catching like sandpaper over silk.

Buffy put her hand on his arm, turning him to face her. "I'm so sorry, Connor. You never said."

He pulled in on himself, shaking his head. "I don't like talking about it." Swallowing hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, Connor glanced over at Willow. "Sorry, I didn't mean to detract from your pain and make it about me." His eyes hardened as he looked back over to the unapologetic Andrew. "I just don't like being told I don't count."

Buffy rubbed his back as Willow smiled at him.

"It's all right, Connor. I'm sorry for your losses, too," Willow said. "I'll stay here, maybe go through the books again. Maybe I can find a safer way to fight these things than risking hand to hand combat."

"That would be very good, Willow," Giles said, resting his hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Shall we then?"

Once they were underway, jammed into Giles' vehicle, Buffy slid a comforting arm around Connor's waist and smiled at him softly.

Xander looked over the front seat at him. "I lost my fiancée last year, too. It's not easy."

Connor nodded. "No, it's not and I'm sorry. As a group, we don't have much luck do we?"

"Not often," Buffy said, her eyes old and sad. "Giles, do you have any idea what the rest of us will be looking for while you, Dawn, and Concetta talk to the priest?"

"Not exactly," he admitted. "I'll try to examine the baptismal font that Connor mentioned. I think you need to concentrate on the basement of the church. Many of them contain crypts and underground passages. That might be very important."

"Lucky us, party in the crypts," Xander said, glancing at Connor with an incredulous look on his face. "And you chose to ignore college fun for this?"

Connor shrugged. "Apparently I'm not overly bright. Actually I'm here taking one history and one writing class. Crypts are history. I'll pretend it's an assignment...or even turn it into one."

Xander's one eye swept over Connor. "Yeah, I see what you were saying, Buffy. He is going to be a junior Giles."

"And the problem with this is?" Giles asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Could be worse. I could be trying to be Andrew," Connor shot back. "I think I'll go with emulating wisdom and class."

"Easy there, G-Man's head will get too big to be in the car with us." Xander smirked.

"Where were you, Connor, when I had to deal with the likes of Xander in high school?" Giles smiled at Xander, gentling his words.

_Hell_, Connor thought. "Learning the insanities of dating a Californian vegan probably. A course I do not suggest if you happen to enjoy eating anything that actually casts a shadow. That's probably why I don't miss a meal, Concetta. You know how to cook." Connor smiled at the younger Slayer.

"Yes, not always a good combination with dancing," she said ruefully.

"Feed all the extras to Connor. The kid could use some meat on those little bones," Faith said eying him critically.

"I'm wiry. This is the way I'm supposed to be." Connor pouted and Faith's snort did nothing for his mood. Connor fell into a deep brood.

"You really remind me of someone," Faith said, and he knew she meant Angel. He couldn't deny his mannerisms seemed to be inherited. The curious thing was that the look in Buffy's eyes said she agreed with Faith so maybe there was another brooder in their bunch that he hadn't met yet. Well, whoever it was it sure wasn't Harris. Xander apparently wore his emotions on his sleeve.

Connor maintained his stony silence until they were in the basement of the church. He wondered what they hoped to find. He did not want to find a soul-eater in the catacombs. There was no room to maneuver down there. They'd end up dead.

"Where do we find the crypts?" Xander asked. "We're not looking for an X in the library."

Connor smirked at the Indiana Jones reference. "Most of them are not marked with an X nor are they public. We'll probably have to break in if we can even find the entrance and...I'll be honest I'm not itching to go into a catacomb where the walls practically touch your shoulders and we can't possibly fight."

"You wait until now to tell us this why?" Faith's eyes darkened with irritation.

"Buffy already knows. We've been down in them once already," Connor said. "And we needed to do something, right?"

"Being the duck in a duck shoot wasn't what I had in mind," Faith said.

Connor nodded. "And it hurts, what they do. I got saved at the last second from one and I can tell you it hurt bad."

"Way to rally the troops," Xander muttered.

Connor looked over at Buffy, wondering why she wasn't coming to his rescue at least a little. Maybe she was more upset about Kennedy's death than he realized or worried about Willow. Maybe she was still smarting over the fact that she thought he considered her 'old.' Or maybe her life didn't exactly revolve around him and he was being overly sensitive but it seemed to him that sharing his own tragedy had made her withdraw from him.

She didn't even spare him a second glance as they started examining the lower level of the church for a way to get into the catacombs. They found their way into a crypt but from there it looked like a dead end, a repository for some church dignitaries. Connor wished he knew what to do with his misery because it was coming at him like an eighteen wheeler and he was walking toward it arms spread wide. He shouldn't have mentioned Jasmine and Cordy because now he couldn't get them out of his mind. All he wanted was to go somewhere and curl up to cry. It was a distraction he could ill afford.

"Over here," Faith called. "This doesn't look very hidden." She pointed to a cracked memorial plaque. "Think something's been through here?"

"Looks like," Buffy said, squatting down so she could move the plaque.

The narrow opening behind it was dark, a musty smell roiling out of it. Connor wrinkled his nose against it, trying to remind himself to mouth breath. Flashlight in hand, Buffy took point and Faith brought up the rear. Connor had rarely been in the middle of a pack. It felt odd, claustrophobic and he didn't like it but he was on Slayer territory so he resolved to just deal with it. The old stone of the catacombs felt like the tomb it was. Xander kept stopping, rubbing his shoulders where he constantly banged them on the close walkway walls.

"Your butt needs to be narrow to get through here," the dark-haired young man said.

"We're going to be so screwed if that thing is hiding down here," Faith grumbled.

"Anyone else hearing the Jason music?" Xander mumbled.

"These things move very silently," Connor said, not liking all the banter. He was more of a stealthy hunter. "Maybe we should hush so we have a prayer of hearing it."

"You can sniff them out," Buffy said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

"Not down here...not accurately." Connor looked at the bones lying on the shelves of stone. "Too closed in, too much mildew and...other stuff."

"Okay, I'm starting to freak out. These catacombs are branching out all over the place. Anyone leave a bread crumb trail?" Xander asked, his voice tight, as his eyes scanned the maze of passages.

"I can smell my way back," Connor assured him then stopped, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his flashlight down the shaft to his right just in time to highlight a soul-eater's face. The thing was on him before he could move. It yanked him forward, crushing his skull into a loculi and Connor saw stars. Thunder rumbled in his head as he tumbled into darkness. Connor didn't quite go all the way out, finding himself face down in someone's remains. He couldn't even scream as the familiar tearing sensation shredded him from inside out.

Connor heard a flashlight shattering and Xander cursing. He assumed the other man had tried to brain the soul-eater. The taffy pull of his soul ended and he heard Xander cry out. He had obviously succeeded in getting the soul-eater's attention. Dazed from the head wound, Connor couldn't even lift himself up out of the bones. He stayed down and out of the way. It was next to impossible to fight in the narrow passageway but Faith and Buffy were managing it. His vision cleared in time to see Buffy finish the creature off. It fell on top of Xander who grunted. Connor took that as a good sign.

"Xand?" Buffy asked at the same time as Faith said, "You okay, kid?"

"Oh my god...it tried..." Xander said, his voice hollow. He shook under the dead demon.

"Yeah, told you that hurt," Connor said, his vision not cooperating. "Damn, it split my head open good." Connor could feel the blood pouring down his face, warm and thick. He knew his skull was okay. It took a lot to break him. He'd fallen three stories and landed face down more than once without breaking anything.

"We need to get you out of here," Buffy said.

"I'll be fine...just need to get the bleeding stopped," Connor said, trying to turn around to head back. He swallowed hard against the rising bile. He couldn't get sick here.

"Xander, can you walk?" Buffy asked as Faith helped him up.

"I'm wigged but fine," he replied.

"Does this mean those things are coming from this church?" Faith asked as she started back.

"I don't know," Connor said. "We know they've gone into other catacombs at other churches near here but...my gut tells me something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

"Why don't we concentrate on the here and now and worry about Denmark later," Faith said.

"He means there's something wrong with the church," Buffy said, recognizing _Hamlet_ when she heard it. "And I agree. Let's hope Dawn, Giles, and Concetta have found something out."

"Let's hope the priest didn't sic more of those things on them. Concetta's too green to handle it," Faith said, sparing an irritated look for Connor over the literary reference.

By the time they surfaced back into the lower levels, Connor's shirt was soaked in blood. Buffy shone the flashlight at his forehead.

"Oh, ick," she said, her lips pulling into a rictus.

"Is that your best medical opinion?" He grinned through the blood. Colored lights danced at the edges of his vision and around his friends like the aurora borealis.

"Your head looks like a horror flick," Faith said. "Peeled off part of your forehead."

Connor touched the painful flap of skin that was still pumping blood. "It'll heal fast. We just need to bind it back in place."

"The one thing we never think to bring, bandages," Buffy said, tearing off the end of his shirt to fashion a makeshift bandage. "We'll fix you better when we get home. Now, we'd better check on the others."

"I think maybe Xander and Connor ought to go directly outside," Faith said. "No sense tipping off the priest if he is involved."

Buffy nodded. "Good idea."

"I'm more than willing to sit in the car," Connor said and that's what he did. He collapsed gratefully in the back seat, his head throbbing. Xander sat in the front seat.

"You don't want to have a doctor stitch that up?" Xander nodded to Connor's head, still very white-faced himself.

"I heal like the Slayers," Connor said.

Xander's solitary brown eye popped open. "How's that work?"

Connor shrugged, not in the mood to talk. "Born that way. I don't think much about it."

Xander seemed to digest that for a moment. "So, you're dating Buffy."

"Yeah." Connor wished Xander would shut up. His head hurt too much to talk.

"She's special, our Buffy," Xander said as if he thought Connor didn't understand that.

"I know. Xander, I'm not trying to be rude...but I'm not sure my brains aren't leaking out of my skull. Can we talk about this later...when I'm not bleeding? I'll answer whatever questions you have. I'd rather you hear it from me than Andrew or hell, even Buffy herself. But right now..."

"Quiet would be better," Xander finished. "I'm not good with quiet."

"How did I know you were going to say that?" Connor moaned.

Xander gave him a crooked smile. "But since you look ready to faint I can try."

"Trust me, won't faint." _Puke maybe_. Connor put a hand to his head. Maybe if he held his brains in it wouldn't hurt so much; wrong. Xander did shut up but it only lasted a minute before everyone else piled into the car and Giles took off a decidedly faster pace than he used getting to the church.

Buffy pulled Connor against her shoulder and he left himself relax against her. "Talk to us, Giles," she said.

"Father Gabrielle is lying about something. He was highly offended we were even asking questions and I get the distinct impression that he is utterly obsessed with sin," Giles said.

"He wouldn't really answer our questions," Dawn put in. "He kept trying to get rid of us."

"He is...I think he has given up on the world," Concetta said hesitantly. "He does not believe we can be saved. Some of the things he said...that's what I think."

"We're too wicked? If he only knew." Faith snorted.

"So why a soul-eater?" Connor asked. "Why not a sin-eater?"

"You can get your sins eaten?" Buffy made a face. "What would that taste like?"

"I have some sins they could eat." Faith grinned, her dark eyes dancing.

"The sin-eaters come in as you're dying, Faith," Giles said, in full Watcher mode. "Which is why we're probably not seeing them being used. If Father Gabrielle is behind this, and if Concetta is right about him giving up on his flock, then saving the sinful few on their death beds isn't enough. He's looking for a wider annihilation of the wicked. I have to agree with Connor. That baptismal font has been used in a conjuring."

"So what do we do about it?" Buffy asked.

"That I don't know yet. We'll do the research when we get home but it's imperative that he not be allowed to summon more of these things. For all we know, he's conjuring more every day," Giles said.

"Perfect," Faith muttered, summing it up in one word.

Connor ignored the small talk on the way back to their home. He was slow getting out of the car. Buffy took his hand leading him into the kitchen.

"Sit. There's no room to maneuver in the bathroom. I'll go get the stuff and fix your head." She favored him with a small smile.

"Thanks."

While Buffy was gone, Willow brought Xander into the kitchen. She put a hand on Connor's shoulder. "Xander was telling me the soul-eater nearly got the both of you."

Connor refrained from nodding, not sure his head wouldn't snap off. "Yeah. And I forgot to say it, thanks, Xander. If you hadn't distracted it, it might have killed me before Buffy and Faith could slay it. So, thanks. I owe you."

Xander managed another crooked grin. "You're welcome. Buffy's saved my bacon more times than I can count. Faith, too, now I guess."

"That's twice one of those things nearly got me. I can do without a third time." Connor sighed. "And yet it's oddly comforting."

"How?" Xander gave him a look that said he thought Connor might be nuts.

"Well, now at least we know we have souls," Connor replied.

"Was that ever in doubt?" Buffy asked, coming back in with a crate of medical supplies.

Connor stripped off his ruined, blood-soaked shirt and tossed it in the garbage can that Willow moved next to him. "Sure. I mean, there are many forms of belief that consider the soul more allegory than reality. It's sort of comforting to know that there is a real soul and therefore maybe an afterlife to look forward to."

"Good point," Buffy said, taking the bandage off his head. She started sponging the dried blood from his face. "I can tell you from experience that there is a heaven."

His eyes canted up at her but no further explanation was coming. Connor saw the anguish in her eyes and the hurt looks on Xander and Willow's faces and decided not to press the issue.

"That looks awful," Willow said, gesturing to his head. She went back to putting the tea kettle on, which is why he presumed she and Xander came into the kitchen in the first place.

He could see how eager she was to change the subject. "Those things are strong. I've fallen multi-stories before and landed on my face and it didn't hurt this much."

"It clipped your head off that bone shelf, looks like it caught you just right. You're sure you heal like a Slayer?" Buffy asked worriedly as she slathered anti-biotic ointment on gauze.

"Positive. By tonight, it'll be sealed over," he promised.

"Okay."

Buffy bandaged his head and Willow got him a glass of water so he could take some aspirin. He doubted they'd help the drum beating behind his eyes but he was willing to give it a shot. Once he was cleaned up, they went into the library.

"Connor, do you need to rest?" Giles asked. "We have plenty of eyes here for the books."

"I can help," Connor promised.

He found out fast it was a lie. He must have a concussion or as close as his body could come to it. He couldn't focus on the words so he just put his head down for a moment to rather than and gather himself together. The next thing he knew someone was shaking his shoulder. He looked up blearily.

"I was beginning to think we'd need to take you to the hospital after all." Buffy smiled gently at him.

Connor rubbed his eyes, saddened to discover the headache was clinging like a burr. "Sorry if I scared you. I guess it whacked me harder than I thought. How long have I been out?"

"It's a little after noon," Buffy said. "I was getting a little too worried to just let you sleep it off...wasn't sure if it was sleep or coma."

"No, it's okay." Connor rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to pinch the headache out of his skull. "Did we learn anything?"

"Mostly that we need to be sure that this priest is calling them and stop him. And if not him, then find out who and fast," Buffy said grimly.

"Thoughts on how to do it?"

"We're going to stake out the good Father and the church. We being me, Faith, Concetta, and Willow. You're right, she wants to feel useful," Buffy said ruefully.

"Those things killed her girlfriend. I can imagine she wants a little of her own back," Connor replied and Buffy's expression instantly transmuted into fear.

Buffy's face went the color of old paper. "That can be a bad thing...just trust me on that."

Connor could tell this was one of those things he wasn't going to be made privy to. He couldn't complain. He was doing the same thing, hiding part of his life. "I trust you. I notice I was left off the list."

"Tell me you're honestly up for a fight tonight," she said, crossing her arms in front of her.

Connor sucked in his lower lip, running his upper teeth over it. He had fought wounded before. He got up from the table to prove he was fine and the room swam. "No, I'm not. I'll stay here and help the others."

Buffy touched his shoulder. "Good because I was prepared to knock you on your butt if you argued."

Connor smirked. "Now's not the time to talk dirty to me."

Buffy laughed. "You're bad."

"Just remember that...and I hope Andrew does, too, because tonight is so not the night to start running his mouth at me."

"Hopefully he'll be with Xander," Buffy said sympathetically.

"And that they won't gang up on me. Though, I think Xander was appeased by a promise to answer any questions once my brain wasn't leaking out my ears any more." Connor shrugged. "He seems very protective of you."

"He is of me, Dawn, and Willow actually. We're more family than friends."

"That's good. I don't mind the questions...just would like to be able to form thoughts when I answer them." Connor sighed, wondering what half truths and outright lies he might be forced into telling now. He'd just go with his Reilly history.

"Understandable. If he gives you a lot of trouble..." Buffy trailed off.

Connor figured she didn't want to be between her friend and her new boy toy. "I can handle myself."

"I have no doubt of it." Buffy's expression changed as she led him out into the courtyard between the homes. Connor wondered why she was taking him outside but given the warmth of the late afternoon, the honey scent of the profusely blooming Spanish Broom and the overly sweet fruiting figs it was an idyllic setting. Connor sank onto the garden bench, looking up into the blue Mediterranean sky. For a moment, he wondered how in the world he had ever gotten here. It just didn't seem to fit his life but of course he had found the people who did fit it. "I just wanted to say...should have said earlier, I'm sorry, Connor."

His brow knitted, knifing pain toward his brain. "About what?"

"About the things that happened to you last year." She sat next to him. "I can't imagine losing a lover and a child at the same time."

"You did say so earlier and I didn't handle it well, losing them I mean," he confessed, scanning her face for recriminations about being too young to have a child or for having hid that fact but saw none.

"I don't think those are the things we're meant to handle well...or at all," she murmured, resting her head against his shoulder. "When I lost my lover, I took off, just ran away for months."

"Sorry. God, we're the things operas are made of," he said and she laughed wearily.

"I know. Can we just sit quietly?" she asked plaintively.

Connor just slipped an arm around her and they lounged, soaking up sun and floral scents until it was dinner time. Once it was dark, the super powers headed off while the others retired with the books. At Giles' urging Connor did his homework for his creative writing class. He found it deeply ironic to be fulfilling an English requirement in Italy but he was enjoying short story writing. Mr. Cavello liked his imagination. Connor got a laugh out of that since all he was doing was retelling his life in Quor-Toth as a set of fantasy pieces. He knocked out most of another story then went to bed, still feeling poorly.

He was awoken again when someone opened his door, softly calling his name. He looked up to see Buffy. He turned on the bedside lamp. "Did you get them all?"

She shook her head. "Dusted some vampires and the way into the catacombs has been sealed." Her lips pulled into a grim line. "Someone knows we were there."

"Then we're on the right track."

"Yeah, we just need to pick up the speed is all before more people die." She slumped against the doorframe.

"We'll get him...if this priest is this deranged, he's not going to stop because he thinks we're on to him. He might not even think that. For all he knows, we're some thrill seekers going into the catacombs," Connor reasoned.

"He's going to stop one way or another." Her eyes hardened. "Can I stay here? I know you're in no shape...I...I just want someone to hold on to."

"Of course." Connor flipped back the covers and turned out the light.

Buffy slid in next to him, resting her head on his chest. Connor cradled an arm around her. She didn't say anything more, falling asleep quickly. Connor, somehow, found it harder to slip back away, her secrets and his buzzing around in his head.


	8. church of bone

CHAPTER EIGHT

_ /I We have no past we won't reach back  
Keep with me forward all through the night  
And once we start the meter clicks  
And it goes running all through the night  
Until it ends there is no end_

_All Through the Night- Cyndi Lauper /I_

Buffy couldn't sleep. It was rare that the sun woke her up but between her normal post-slaying restlessness, which had no outlet last night, and her worry about Willow, sleep was elusive. Connor's head injury had taken an apparent toll on him and he was sleeping heavier than Buffy had ever known him to do. She tried not to think about the things Connor had revealed to the group the day before. Still, there had been a deep sadness in his voice, not only for his lost lover but also for their child. It was obvious to her that he wanted children but probably had come to the conclusion waiting was better or was it the guilt that she saw in his eyes? The overwhelming guilt put her in mind of another lover, the one who left because he couldn't give her normal things like children. Ironic since most of the things he thought he couldn't give her were things she didn't want in the first place.

Buffy sighed, dragging herself back from the edge of depression. She needed to do something if she couldn't sleep. She didn't feel like exercising and the dew would still be on the ground so she ruled out sitting in the garden. If she was the first one up, she might be expected to make breakfast and it would be better for everyone if she stuck to assisting people with talent like Concetta. Frozen waffles were more Buffy's style.

She saw Connor's laptop sitting on the dresser with a sheath of papers next to it. Debating her options of more research, flipping through the channels of the living room TV to try and find stuff in English, making breakfast, or checking Connor's home work, she opted for the last one. She could at least lounge in bed and do that. She figured he wouldn't mind. He was always asking for people to read it over and tell him if it made sense.

She slid out of bed, retrieved the papers then climb back into the soft nest of sheets. Connor merely murmured, rolling onto his side, facing away from her. His shoulder blades knifed at his skin like angel's wings trying to bud. He needed to eat several of Concetta's scrumptious meals, Buffy decided.

She settled against the pillows and was happy to find she wasn't killing time with one of his history papers, not her favorite subject. It was a short story. Buffy had been shocked to find she truly liked her English and literature courses and had been depressed when she had to drop out to take care of her mother and sister. Connor's story was about a boy growing up in a hell dimension. She glanced over at her slumbering lover. It read so much like a biography she could almost imagine it had happened. What would life be like in a place like that? Suddenly, Sunnydale looked bright and happy.

Next to her, Connor stirred. He rolled onto his back and groggily ran a hand over his face. His hand jerked back like he'd been burned as he encountered the wound on his forehead.

"Morning." She smiled down at him. "How's the head?"

"Better than yesterday." Connor didn't appear to be in any hurry to get up. "Still hurts though."

"I bet."

His baby blues flicked over to the papers she held. "What are you doing?"

"Checking to see if you've been a good boy and did your homework or a bad one who needs punishing." She grinned. "Seems you've been good."

"Remind me to not do my homework next time." Connor smirked, rolling over to kiss the bare skin of her belly where it peeked through the silky hem of her two piece nightie.

"You are already bad enough." She patted him on the shoulder. "We should get moving. I was hoping to be lazy and snag one of Concetta's breakfasts but I don't hear her up yet. You didn't eat much after getting hurt so you must be starving."

"I am." Connor hitched himself up and nibbled her neck.

"I'm not breakfast," Buffy said as his tongue laved over the bite mark scars Angel had left on her neck. Too many of her boyfriends would have literally considered her breakfast.

Connor sat back, licking his lips. "I disagree."

"I thought your head hurt." Buffy reached over and stroked his soft hair.

"I'm pretty sure diverting blood from my head will help immensely," he said, sliding a hand into her silk panties. He kissed her inner thigh and Buffy didn't protest any further.

Buffy helped Concetta with the breakfast as Connor sat down at the table, his head unbandaged. The enormous gash had healed to a puckered red line across his pale flesh. He ate fast and went back to the living room. Buffy grimaced, listening to the CD he was playing again as his fingers clicked over the keyboard. He had a strange and limited range of music CDs with him; the angry boy montage and the stuff he had on now, opera and classical music. She rather hated the opera.

"Again with this, Connor? I'm going to hide this CD," she warned, going into the living room, which was deserted except for Connor and Giles. The music had probably scared them off.

"Amici is good, helps me think," he protested.

"It's quite pleasant," Giles put in, looking up from his thick tome.

"If Giles is voting for it, it has to go." Buffy put her hands on Connor's shoulders, massaging them.

He leaned into it like a cat. "Giles has excellent musical taste. His classic rock collection is awesome."

"Connor, the way you keep buttering up Giles, I'm going to start thinking you're using me to get to him." Buffy laughed.

"It's those pretty blue eyes and the cupid mouth and that look he gives," Connor said, and Giles glared at him, pinched mouthed.

"You mean that look?" Buffy smiled at her Watcher.

Connor uttered a dreamy sigh. "That's the one."

Buffy ruffled his hair. "You're a strange, wee man."

"This I know. I assumed it was the reason you liked me." He grinned, leaning back against her.

"That's one of them." She pointed at the computer. "More homework?"

"Just futzing around with my paper," he said. "Before I turn it in today."

"When do you leave?" Her eyes flicked to the wound on his head, giving it a dubious look.

"Soon. I'll have to put gauze over that," he said, reading her mind. "Or I'll be answering questions all day. Is there anything you need me to do while I'm out?"

"I don't think so," Buffy said.

"Connor, why don't you meet us at the church?" Giles glanced over at him. "I think we need to keep it under scrutiny."

"Of course. I'll see you there." He took Buffy's hand. "Want to give me a hand bandaging my forehead back up?"

"Of course," Buffy said, almost envious that he looked so happy to be going to class. She was jealous that he was more successful in balancing school and slaying and wished she could escape the gloom that hung over the house for an hour or two herself. When he was gone, she did hide his opera CD for her sanity's sake.

"This sitting and waiting sucks," Faith said as they kept the church under surveillance with scoped out equipment.

"I'm just shocked Andrew actually has a use." Connor waved his night scope binoculars that Andrew and Xander had procured.

"Connor," Buffy scolded. "Speaking of which, one of us should go over there with Xander and Andrew." She nodded to the other side of the church.

"Willow and Concetta are with them," Faith said dismissively.

"And it shouldn't be me," Connor said, an annoyed look on his face. "I'm tempted to snap Andrew's neck and tell you something got him."

"Connor!" Buffy's voice was sterner this time.

"You don't hear all the things he says about me, Buffy," Connor replied unapologetically. "At least the jury's still out on Xander. I think he might not hate me."

"I'll go over with them." Faith started walking. "I can't sit still any longer."

"Hunters need to have patience, Faith," Connor said.

"Yeah, I'll work on that." Faith rolled her eyes.

"Hang on," Buffy said then picked up her walkie talkie. "Xander, I see the priest doing something at the font. Get moving toward the church but don't go in. Guard the door and have Concetta ready to pick off anything that makes a run for it. Just send in Willow in case we need magical back up." Buffy nodded at Faith and Connor who started moving without being told.

"You hate waiting," Connor whispered. " I hate magic."

"Prepare to hate then," Buffy said as they got to the church. "You go to the basement door, Connor, in case those things head to the crypt. Faith and I can handle one old priest."

Connor canted off, parking himself right in the doorway, half in and half out of the building. Buffy waved Faith in first. The priest, chanting over the baptismal font, reminded Buffy of Caleb in his all black and crisp white collar. Dark green smoke roiled out of the font with a stench that left Buffy gagging.

"I don't think so," Faith said, knocking the font over just a little too late.

Out of the slime that spilled over the tiled floor, things shimmered and grew. Andrew nearly fell over Willow back peddling away; so much for listening to orders. Buffy knew Andrew had been convinced of his own abilities to help in this situation. And as fast as Andrew was rethinking his decision and moving away from the slime, Willow moved forward with a dark-eyed look. Buffy grabbed the priest, yanking Father Gabrielle behind her. Willow eyed her with a cold fury that made Buffy shiver.

"You can't stop me, the cleansing has to be done!" Gabrielle ranted, shoving at Buffy.

"So you summon up murderous demons and set them loose to kill whoever they feel like?" Buffy whirled on him.

"There are no innocents," he snapped back.

"Tell that to them." Faith pointed to the three new Soul-eaters born out of the sludge.

Father Gabrielle's face was almost rapturous. "Run my children, hunt well!"

Two of them skittered towards the side door to the sacristy as if sensing three Slayers were far more than they wanted to handle. The third charged toward Willow and Andrew. Willow barked out a spell and the thing was frozen in its tracks. Buffy beheaded it easily. One of the others tagged Faith and Buffy barely had time to yank the Slayer away from the thing's touch before it was too late. Faith shuddered, gasping. The one that touched her feinted at Andrew, giving its companion time to grab Father Gabrielle, lifting the shocked and protesting man up, carting him along. Buffy didn't know if the things merely didn't want to lose a soul to eat or if they felt some kind of unholy allegiance to the priest.

The team piled out the door after them. Buffy cursed at how fast they moved. Faith bellowed for Xander and Concetta since Connor was situated at the basement door just one level down from the sacristy door. He was already on the move. The things raced along the street then finally burst through a door half way up the steps of a tan-hued church. Buffy's pack followed them in, Xander pausing to flick on the lights even though they were breaking and entering. Buffy hoped if the police showed up, Concetta could talk them out of trouble.

"Where the hell did they go?" Willow asked, her voice rough and cold.

"This way," Connor said, his nostril's flaring.

Buffy let him take point. She wanted to keep a close eye on Willow, just in case. Connor paused looking at the six iron gates that cordoned off the room. This wasn't the main part of the church, that much Buffy knew but she wasn't sure what it was. There were significant differences in European churches, or at least she thought there were since she never spent much time in American ones. Connor's nose wrinkled.

"Problems?" she asked.

"Smells funky," he said tersely as he cautiously went forward, opening one of the gates.

Connor didn't get far. He stopped, staring up at the ceiling. Buffy followed his gaze, expecting a soul-eater to fall from above. Instead she slowly realized that the molding on the walls and vaulted ceiling wasn't wood or stone but rather human bones arranged in floral patterns. The most intricate patterns were concentrated around the bases of the chandeliers, which were composed of vertebrae and sacral bones.

"Have we stepped through to hell?" Faith asked quietly, her eyes jumpy.

"We're in the ossuary of the _chiesa dei cappuccini, la santa marie delle concezione_," Concetta offered.

"What?" Andrew asked nervously as he moved away from the bone-adorned wall.

"Our lady of the conception of the capuchins," Connor said. "The monks they named cappuccino after."

"Another drink ruined," Buffy muttered, shuttering at the macabre decorations.

"I've heard of this place," Connor continued, ignoring her. "They used the bones of thousands of monks for centuries to decorate it. I wanted to come see it."

"You really did hit your head hard, kid," Faith said, looking too ready to attack the first thing that moved.

Connor curled his lip at her then pointed down the corridor. He led the way into a room even more bedecked with bone. Andrew let out a cry, jumping back. He pointed frantically to the wall where three robed skeletons stood watch in front of domed mounds of skulls and another one reclined in a niche of bone.

"I think it's safe to say they aren't going to hurt us," Willow said as Connor cast around trying to catch the scent.

"Next time I whine about my job, remind me I could be the person who dusts all of this," Xander said, his solitary eye wide.

Buffy just nodded in silent agreement, wondering how anyone had decided that this would be the way to home decorate. She wondered for a moment if Angel and Spike knew about this place. It would have probably appealed to them in the bad old days.

"And I thought the catacombs were bad," Faith muttered as they pressed on.

"They were worse, no room to move," Connor reminded her. "Getting closer."

"There." Buffy pointed to a figure on the floor under a full skeleton on the wall that held a scythe and a scale. The fallen man's legs splayed unnaturally. "Something tells me Father Gabrielle isn't going to be summoning up any more trouble."

Willow knelt down and took his pulse anyhow. She seemed disgusted that the priest was dead. "That was too easy for all the death he caused."

No one said anything to that. Their eyes scanned for more signs of the soul-eaters. Buffy was beginning to think they had gone back outside, that this was a mere dodge. She had no idea how smart the creatures were then she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. One of the creatures was coming up behind Willow.

"Willow!" she cried and her friend twisted, uttering something in Latin. Buffy watched the soul-eater get slammed into a wall by an invisible force.

The other soul-eater melted out of the shadows and charged them. Connor flipped upwards, his heel connecting with the thing's head, knocking it towards Faith and Buffy. Faith went low as Buffy went high but the thing surprised them. It vaulted over Faith's blade and slapped its hand down into Buffy's cleavage. She gave a strangled gasp as the thing started to draw her forth from her body. Buffy tried to push the demon off of her but she couldn't move. She could see Concetta and Connor were too wrapped up in the other soul-eater to help.

Suddenly the demon trying to eat her soul twisted sideways, back handing someone. She saw Xander, stake in hand, slam up against the wall. He hadn't managed to get the thing to release her but in swatting Xander like an insect the thing left itself open. Faith was there in a heart beat, swinging her sword like she was trying to bat one to the cheap seats. The demon's head flew and Buffy fell onto her butt, panting for breath but soul intact.

Buffy glanced over at the continuing combat in time to see Concetta duck under the reach of the second one. Connor feinted at it, trying to draw its attention away from the less experienced Slayer. It worked a little too well. Connor side stepped, nearly tripping over Andrew who was trying to take a bead on it with his crossbow. Cursing at him, Connor charged the demon as it went for Concetta again and a back swing from the Slayer's sword almost caught him.

Suddenly a greenish mist covered the soul-eater and it started convulsing then exploded. Buffy stared in shock then glanced back at Willow who stood, arm outstretched, trembling. She didn't even want to know what spell Willow had cast. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to see it again.

Xander put his arm around Willow, gently pulling her arm down. "It's over, Wills," he said softly.

Willow looked at him, her lips quivering. She collapsed against her friend, weeping wordlessly. Xander just wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

"Is it over?" Concetta asked softly.

"I sure as hell hope so," Faith said then clamped a hand on Connor's shoulder. "So, kid, you coming back here with a camera?"

Connor nodded. "I feel a history project coming on."

"You need therapy," the dark haired Slayer said and Buffy found herself in agreement. How could tourists want to come here? Faith kicked one of the dead soul-eaters. "They don't even have the courtesy to dust."

"I know. Let's get it cleaned up," Connor said. "Andrew, help me pick up the pieces."

"Ewww, I don't want to touch...that." The young man's face screwed up in disgust.

"Whining will tempt me to make you a permanent part of the display," Connor snarled.

"Just help, Andrew," Buffy said wearily. "We all will."

Faith came over and draped an arm casually around Buffy's shoulders. "My thought, put shock collars on those boys. It'll help in the long run."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Don't tempt me." She sighed and started to clean up dead demon debris.

"We'll have to keep an eye on the news reports to be sure that no other soul-eaters are still out there," Giles said, leaning against an olive tree so he could talk to Buffy who was trying to mope in the garden. "We'll never know exactly how many of the bloody things Father Gabrielle summoned."

"Willow insisted on going back to the church. We found his diaries in the priest's house. Concetta is reading them, to see if we can figure out when he started and why...beyond the fact that he was nuts," Buffy said.

"From what we learned, it sounds like he truly did believe we were too corrupt to save." Giles pushed up his glasses, his eyes flicking towards the house. Buffy read a longing look there. He wanted to read the diaries, too. "How is Willow holding up?"

"It got a little scary there," Buffy said, wishing that was a lie. "But, I think the worst is passed. The soul-eaters are dead. Father Gabrielle is dead. There's nothing left to feed the anger."

"Yes, well, that's good. I'll go speak to her." Giles pushed off the tree. "Good job dealing with this, Buffy."

"Thanks," she said, thinking if it had been a good job, Kennedy wouldn't be dead. She watched Giles go inside. A few minutes later Connor came out, a blanket draped over his arm.

He spread it on the grass near the Spanish broom. He sat down then looked over at her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. A little late for a picnic." She nodded at the blanket.

"Star gazing," he said, lying back. "I like it outside, reminds me of home."

"Los Angeles? You can't see stars there," she said, coming over to sit beside him.

"I never said L.A. was home, just where I live now," Connor corrected her. "It's so beautiful here, but you still can't see all that many stars. Next vacation, I'm going somewhere I can see the night sky."

Buffy laid next to him, putting her head on his bony chest. Connor was not ideal for snuggling. The honey scent of the broom filled her senses. "You actually get vacations?"

"No, but I don't think I'm going to let that stop me any more," he replied, wrapping an arm around her.

Buffy sighed, closing her eyes. "I like that attitude. Maybe I should give it a shot."

"There's more than one Slayer now. I'd say you've earned it. I'm heading for Florence for a few days to see for myself what I'm writing about in my Medici paper and to see the Uffizi gallery. They have some cool themed tours in Florence. Want to come?"

Buffy hitched herself up on one arm, looking down at him. "Gallery? I'd like that. Have I ever told you my mom ran the gallery in Sunnydale? Art's big with the Summers women."

He ran a hand along the curve of her jaw. "I love art. Say you'll come...once the funeral is over and if Willow doesn't need you."

"If Willow doesn't need me, I'd love it." Buffy leaned down, kissing him softly. "Are you really going back to that creepy church with a camera?"

"Sure. Maybe I can freak out my sister with some pictures." He grinned.

"Why do I get the impression I'm going to be saying you're a strange wee man a lot?" Buffy laughed.

"I have no idea." Connor caught her cheeks, pulling her close for a longer kiss.

Buffy decided it didn't matter that Connor would soon be gone from her life. She was going to take Giles' advice and enjoy her summer fling for what it was and for as long as she could. It almost made her feel like a normal girl, a normal girl who was going to Florence on vacation with her not so normal boy of summer.

Author's Note - the chiesa santa marie della concezione is real. If you'd like to have a look head to these urls http/www3.sympatico.ca/tapholov/index.htm And http/ 


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

_ I And call it an angel  
Call it a muse  
And call it karma that you've got comin' to you  
What's the difference  
What's in name  
What matters most is never ever losin' faith  
'Cause it's gonna be alright  
You're not alone tonight_

**_ b You're not alone tonight - Keith Urban /b /I_**

"You had better bring me back something from Florence," Dawn told Buffy, hugging her impulsively. Connor watched the sisterly exchange distractedly as he packed up his laptop. "Or I'll go bitchcakes on you."

"You mean for a change?" Buffy grinned and her sister playfully shoved her.

"Dawn, are you actually expecting Buffy to leave the hotel room?" Willow asked, a faint smile on her face. Connor knew the witch was faking happiness. Kennedy had been cremated two days before and Willow was debating taking the remains home to the girl's parents or simply sending them, unsure if she was emotionally up to the task.

"We'll leave the hotel room. Connor will go all junior Giles on me and I'll never get him out of the museum," Buffy lamented and Connor rolled his eyes, taking care to make sure she didn't see it.

"If he pulls that shit, find some Italian stallion to amuse yourself with while Connor's somewhere being boring," Faith said, a knowing look on her face.

Connor glared at her. "Thanks for nothing, Faith. I'll leave the museum. I mean they close after all." He smirked.

"B, if you want someone to spend all day in the museums ignoring you, take Giles." Faith made a face. "Then again he's old enough to be desperate enough to sleep with you so maybe your chances of getting laid would be better with him."

"Who got insulted more, me, you or Buffy?" Connor asked Giles who was on the couch trying to pretend he was ignoring both the ladies teasing Connor and Buffy, as well as Xander and Andrew who were deeply involved in a Gamecube death match.

"Does it matter? She's just seeing if you'll take the piss," Giles said, glancing up from his book.

"I know," Connor said. "And I'm in too good of a mood to ruin. No more soul-eater sightings, reservations in Florence, a cool rental car because someone insisted getting there on the back of my motorcycle wasn't happening, and predictions of wonderful summer days. I'm jazzed." He grabbed Faith, lifting her off her feet before he kissed her cheek and dropped her. "You can't ruin that."

"Whoa, whoa, sounds like someone's getting a little too frisky," Xander said, pausing the game. He came over to Connor and wagged a finger, a goofy grin on his face. "You behave yourself."

"Who are you kidding? I don't behave, Buffy can kick my ass," Connor replied, smirking at her.

"And don't you forget it," Buffy said, tapping his chin.

"Museums make for good dates. I'd tell you to do what Giles would do but then that might include orgies," Xander said and Giles leveled a withering look at him. "So, museums, libraries, good wholesome fun. Take a church tour."

Connor snorted. Orgies? He made a mental note to ask about that when he got back. "Yes, Dad, will do."

"Try not to desecrate any churches. I am not coming to Florence to bail you two out," Giles warned.

"He takes the fun out of everything," Buffy said, linking arms with Connor.

"So I see," Connor replied, wondering about his parents. He knew from Holtz they had spent time in Italy. How many churches had they desecrated? He'd bet at least one.

"Anything we need to do before we go, Giles?" Buffy asked with a look of worry that he might say yes.

Giles shook his head. "I'm expecting a visitor who might be here before you return. Her name is Harry Doyle. I only know her by reputation but she's emailed me several times now about something that might be coming here from one of the dark worlds."

"Do you need us to stay?" Buffy asked and Connor wanted to drag her out of the house before Giles could say yes. Connor knew all he wanted to know about dark worlds but he wasn't about to share that with the general populace unless he had to. All he wanted was some time alone for fun. He knew it was selfish but he had spent his entire life fighting. He wanted a break.

"No, go. Have fun," Giles said.

"But if there's a threat," Buffy said, ignoring Connor's hot look.

"B, get out of here. Connor, drag her if you have to," Faith said, pushing Buffy along. "There's me and Concetta here, not to mention Willow's kick ass magic. Giles, Xander, Dawn, and Andrew can cover the other stuff. We don't need you."

"She's right," Connor said before Buffy could argue. "We're a phone call away if something happens."

Buffy held up her hands in defeat. "I know. Let's go. Call us if you need us."

Connor grabbed up the last of Buffy's luggage and tossed it into the car then opened the door for her. She kissed him as she got in. "This is going to be fun," he promised.

"I know. We deserve it," she said.

"Truer words never spoken," Connor said. He slipped behind the wheel and started off. He was happy to leave the recriminations and guilt about not stopping Gabrielle faster behind. For once, he was going to be a normal guy with his anything but normal girlfriend enjoying summer days in the sun. If there was another doomsday on the horizon, it could just damn well wait. He was grabbing this opportunity with both hands, no regrets. At last, he was going to enjoy life and the way Buffy smiled at him, Connor knew she felt the same. For just a moment, life was good.

Coming soon to a computer near you...

Excerpts from the sequel "Young Lies"

"Quor-Toth?" Giles looked at the curly haired, attractive young woman who was laying out books on his library desk. "Isn't that one of the darkest of the dark worlds? I know next to nothing about it."

Harry glanced up at Giles. "No one does and that's the problem. But if my sources are right the Destroyer, a creature from there, is going to be coming to Rome. I've called in the one person I've heard tried to find a way into Quor-Toth."

"You called him in? Isn't that risky? Anyone who would willingly enter such a place..." Giles said.

"Isn't necessarily evil," Harry assured him. "I don't want to say much more until I know for sure he's coming. Let's just hope your Slayers don't overreact when he gets here."

"Packing? Going somewhere?" Spike lounged against the door frame to Angel's bedroom.

"No Spike, I just wanted to see how fast I can put all my clothes into small rectangular containers," Angel said, not looking up. He wondered on a daily basis why he allowed the younger vampire to share his new home.

Spike lit up, blowing smoke into the room. "Just glad you're going." His brow knitted. "Where are you going?"

"Rome."

"Like bloody hell you are," Spike said. "I meant what I said. I know Buffy might not want me but I'll be damned if I let you get her."

Angel zipped the luggage shut with a sharp jerk. "This isn't about Buffy, Spike. I don't even know if she's in Rome. I'm going there to meet Harry."

Spike's eyebrows cocked up. "Always knew you were a Nancy boy at heart."

Angel sighed. "Harry's a woman, an ethno-demonologist. She needs my help regarding Quor-Toth. Somehow she heard that I tried to get there and now something might have torn its way through to Rome. She's asked me to bring everything I have about Quor-Toth with me." Angel patted the suitcase, thinking about the dvd's Eve had given to him, recordings of Connor's first days back from that hell. He didn't know how Wolfram and Hart had made them without Lorne picking up on the surveillance but they had. Eve had given those and the tape of the hostage situation to taunt him. Angel has moved them out of Los Angeles just in case he survived Blackthorn's attack, along with some other personal items.

"Why in the hell would you want to go there?" Spike said then rolled his shoulders. "Never mind, don't want to know. Fine you go for Harry. I'm coming along, too," He didn't add 'for Buffy.' He didn't need to.

Angel shrugged. "Fine. I'd rather have you where I can see you."


End file.
